The Decemberists do a very particular thing – darkly ornate, literary-minded, self-consciously verbose Anglophile prog-folk-rock – exceedingly well, so well that you can't blame 'em for wanting to do something else. They do just that on I'll Be Your Girl, at least in parts, the upshot being, well, a re-affirmation of that particular thing they do exceedingly well.
In a robust
This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: Review: Decemberists Shake Up Their Artisanal Folk Rock on ‘I’ll Be Your Girl’