The Decemberists: The King Is Dead [CAPITOL]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing comes in a gatefold jacket with a printed lyric sleeve and a download card. It was the band's first No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 94,000 copies in its first week, and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck plays on three songs.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Printed lyric inner sleeve
• Download card included
• Pressed in the USA

About the album

After three records steeped in the British folk revival, Colin Meloy went looking for something closer to home. He'd spent years learning that tradition inside out, and this time he turned to American music instead, with R.E.M. as his main touchstone. The band cut most of it in six weeks in a barn on Pendarvis Farm, an 80-acre spread near Portland, Oregon, co-producing with Tucker Martine.

Peter Buck brings his jangle to "Don't Carry It All," "Calamity Song" and "Down by the Water," and Annalisa Tornfelt guests too. "Calamity Song" had been kicking around since a 2009 show in Chicago, "Rise to Me" and "June Hymn" were already live favourites in 2010, and "This Is Why We Fight" reached No. 19 on the Alternative Songs chart. "January Hymn" and "June Hymn" bookend the seasons, and Rolling Stone's Douglas Wolk called it the most pastoral, rustic record they'd ever made.

Six leftover songs from the sessions came out that November as the EP Long Live the King. The title may or may not nod to The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead; either way, the monarchy has rarely been so well served by indie rock.

Also at Kops: more The Decemberists on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Capitol, the 2011 album.