July, July!
March 4, 2008
Song: July, July!
Artist: The Decemberists
Album: Castaways and Cutouts
Link: July, July!
Genre: Indie-pop, Indie Rock
Mood: anthemic, cheery
Description: Between the sophisticated lyrics and the brash indie rock, July, July! really rocks out. But not in that hard rock kind of sense; they are more the thinking person’s troubadours than anything else, and by that I mean they rock. This song, and really all of The Decemberists, has a unique penchant for combining story-telling lyrics with a unique, cheery tempo that can be sung along to surprisingly well. While The Decemberists can get very depressing, this song is anything but. (Well, except for the gory lyrics he sings out with cheery gusto: “The blood rolls down the drain/ O, what a lonely thing/ In a blood red drain”, and then precedes to the last oh-so-happy chorus.) But that’s more edgy than creepy, so it’s all good. Ok, so that line was kinda creepy. Why is blood running down a drain? You never find out… But anyway, this song really shows the breadth of what The Decemberists are capable of, adding their typical complexity of lyrics and song-crafting to July, July! just like their sadder songs.
