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At the center of every album is a musical thesis. This thesis can be the driving force behind the album, a theme that interweaves songs together, or a feeling you are left with after the very last song plays. With some albums, the thesis is easy to find. On others, it is hidden and requires you to be more than a passive listener. These reviews are not about rating an album. Instead, it is about uncovering a musical thesis.
Released in 2018, two years into the Trump presidency, I’ll Be Your Girl by the Decemberists sounds as if the thought process behind its creation began on the day of the first Women’s March. From there, it morphed into a realization that many of the things progressives feared from this president were coming true. This feels like an album written by a band simply trying to wrestle with disbelief. Working through those emotions seems like a necessary step before the work of actual change begins.
I have been listening to The Decemberists for more than a decade now. I own their entire catalog and revisit it often (you should see my Spotify Wrapped Playlist at the end of every year). Without a doubt in my mind, this is the closest this band has come to creating a protest album. Normally, the focus of the band’s music is on narratives and is character driven. Sure, these stories and the people we meet along the way reflect the times in which we find ourselves, but never have they so blatantly driven home the point of fighting against the status quo.
Two years into the Trump administration, I shared many of Colin Meloy’s feelings about the state of our country and the world. Indeed, everything felt awful, and that feeling was exhausting. In hushed conversations with other progressives and even a few shocked conservatives/moderates, we expressed many of the emotions that you hear on this album. I knew then, as I know now, that we cannot linger in that space for long. We must recognize those feelings, and then get to work. Along the way, in the art I consumed, it felt great to discover I was not alone.
Be good to each other,
Nathan