I'm a moderate fan of The Decemberists - I have all their albums either on cd or vinyl. Getting into them was a fun experience, starting with The Tain EP and the excellent Picaresque, bought on the same day in Cardiff based on a seemingly endless list of people telling me I should get into them (I bought The Tain on my first ever trip to Spillers Records, the same day I bought All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone by Explosions in the Sky - a good start to a long relationship with that shop).
A few months after moving to Cardiff I finally had enough disposable income to start buying records again (it had been tough few months) and decided to start the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers year, a year where every Tuesday I'd go to Spillers and buy an LP. As mentioned many times before, it was a very good year. The very first record I bought was this one, The Decemberists' first album. It was a fitting start, since the shop had helped me get into the band in the first place.
Castaways and Cutouts is a very strong debut - it sets up everything we've come to expect from the band so well - deep, interesting characters (Leslie Anne Levine, A Cautionary Tale), slow melodic songs (Cocoon, Clementine) and huge indie-pop songs (July, July!, The Legionaire's Lament, California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade). A lot of people would argue that The Crane Wife was the high-point, but for me it was always Picaresque - of course Castaways and Cutouts has long had to live in its shadow, but it does a good job. These days I play it rarely, but enjoy it more than I remember each time I do (although I rank July, July! amongst the band's best songs, so I look forward to that appropriately).
I've found I get less out of the band as I've aged - I've often wished for them to be more serious, but some of the moments I love the most are the exact opposite - but I still think highly of them. Maybe it's not an age thing and one day they'll be a favourite again, you never can tell. They certainly have potential and I'll continue to buy every album until I have a strong desire to stop.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 08/01/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
