This was a thoroughly non-essential purchase, but I can't turn down a bargain. It also seems that I'm a big Decemberist fan, despite only really considering myself to be a casual Decemberists fan; my record collection certainly suggests the former. I remember when this 10" was announced sometime after their seventh album, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (an album I bought a week after it came out - maybe I am a big fan?). I remember thinking I wasn't going to buy it because I wasn't that big a fan, but here we are.
In March 2016, about six months after it came out, this copy of Florasongs found its way into the Norman Records sale and got added to my basket along with five other records. Despite my apathy towards buying it, I do quite like it. The opener, Why Would I Now?, is just one of those great Decemberist songs - moves along at a good pace and very memorable (the next song, Riverswim, fails on both those counts). Fits and Starts is basically a punk song and The Harrowed and the Haunted is a good example of a slower song that works (the hook is infectious), but Stateside is probably the highlight of the record for me. If the song isn't a direct reference to The Replacement's Answering Machine then I'd be amazed - the gentle strumming of a melancholy electric guitar and the fact the drums never kick in no matter how much you're expecting them to puts it right alongside Answering Machine. Another clue is that Colin Meloy literally wrote the book on Let It Be (albeit more of an autobiography of a very particular time in his life - as 33 1/3 books go, it's probably more interesting for a Decemberists fan than a Replacements fan, but luckily I'm both). That song alone justifies the £5 I spent on this 10" - thoroughly recommended.
Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 5
Cost: £5.24 new
Bought: Norman Records
When: 29/03/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
