ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID: VOL 3

"A Record Year for Rainfall" may be one of the best non-album songs from The Decemberists. It sets that despondent mood that this band is phenomenal at crafting while not giving too much away. Here Colin Meloy constructs a three-way metaphor regarding the fall of empires, the end of relationships, and the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Persephone. The mythological story is meant to explain the seasons, since Prosperina was destined to spend six months in the underworld with Pluto, and six months in the land of the living. Her mother Ceres (goddess of agriculture) would be depressed for six months without her, hence the gradual deterioration and gloom of fall and winter. The analogy here is that the guy and the girl can be together no longer, for whatever reason, but they had a good run while it lasted- a record year for rainfall, as it were. The resounding focus, however, is on the pain and melancholy that visits us all as that eventual end draws nigh. The music is grim but never rough, as is their wont to make amazing textures with layers of simple acoustic instruments. "Raincoat Song" is an even softer number, offering beautiful lyrics and equally beautiful harmonies. I think it ends unceremoniously and unworthily, however- just bouncing off the way it does, but the journey itself is short and bittersweet. Personally, I think these two songs are indispensable to one's collection of music from The Decemberists. Had they been written then, they would have been perfect on Picaresque.