Before hearing “The King Is Dead,” I was unfamiliar with the Decemberists’ work. I think that’s the best way to review a band, because then you don’t get bogged down with comparisons, and it just comes down to whether it’s good music.

This album is good music. I listened straight through on a beautiful day, an only-in-SoCal 80-degree January afternoon - it was absolutely a perfect soundtrack for this setting.

The Decemberists tread the line between folky jangles and soft rock ballads, tossing in blues licks as needed, and weaving beautiful vocal harmonies on top of the whole mix. It makes for a great sound.

But that said, I’m not sure if there’s anything particularly special about this album. Every song is on a similar level of “good,” but there’s really no big smash that prompts you to go back and listen obsessively.

Another problem I have with the Decemberists is that, while their sound is definitely great, it’s more of an amalgamation of other artists’ sound than something fresh. If I were to list every facet of their performance and composition, I could draw lines to bands like R.E.M., Green Day and Bright Eyes.

For example, take the second track on the album, “Calamity Song.”  Singer Colin Meloy belts out carefree lyrics in a semi-catchy melody over the R.E.M. acoustic-electric guitar layers. The tempo is upbeat, and the whole package is reminiscent of “The End of the World (As We Know It),” only with a singer who sounds like a hybrid Michael Stipe and Billie Joe Armstrong.

Their style is generally classified as indie rock, alt-country. Despite that relative vagueness, it fits. Picture the soundtrack in a Cracker Barrel, but if it was owned by a younger, more hip staff.

This is a good album, but it definitely takes a lot from predecessor bands, and half of me thinks you’d just be better off listening to them instead.

Reach reporter Clinton Jake VanSciver here.

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