New Decemberists Album in January, Announce 2011 Tour on SPIN.com

Coming from the large, over-the-top previous album The Hazards of Love, the Decemberists are back again with a sound going in the opposite way. Look out for the band's new album The King Is Dead, due out in January.

"I feel like we had definitely gone as far into the conceptual realm as we could go with songwriting," singer Colin Meloy tells SPIN.com. "So [on The King Is Dead] I was trying to challenge my normal impulses a bit, keeping things short and more concise.... I just wanted to write some pretty songs."

SPIN.com writes: "...while the record still finds Meloy showing off his command of the English language — on one track, he rhymes the phrase "bonhomie bone-drab" with "chewable Ambien tab" — the album is a bold, straight-up folk-rock record, perhaps their most accessible one yet. Songs like "Calamity Song" recall early R.E.M. (Peter Buck actually guests on guitar), and "Down by the Water" is a blazing country-rock anthem, with squealing Neil Young-style harmonica lines. "

To achieve the more simple style, the band recorded the album in Oregon, however Meloy found it had the opposite effect:  "We had this expectation that the simpler songs would mean the sessions would be like a vacation, but it was real work." It also didn't help that the studio lacked heat and plumbing. "And it rained a lot on top of it," he says. "No heat, no indoor plumbing, so if you had to go pee, you had put on your Wellies and go to a freezing outhouse. But I think that, in someway, it adds a nice vibe to the record." Hi-Fi can't wait!
Check out the track listing here:           
1. Don't Carry It All                                
2. Calamity Song
3. Rise to Me
4. Rox in the Box
5. January Hymn
6. Down By the Water
7. All Arise!
8. June Hymn
9.This Is Why We Fight
10. Dear Avery

Check to find them in a city near you:

January
25 — New York, N.Y. @ Beacon Theatre*
28 — Boston, Mass. @ House of Blues*
29 — Boston, Mass. @ House of Blues*
31 — Montreal, Quebec @ Olympia De Montreal*
February
1 — Toronto, Ontario @ Sound Academy*
2 — Royal Oak, Mich. @ Royal Oak Music Theatre*
4 — Chicago, Ill. @ Riviera Theatre*
5 — Milwaukee, Wis. @ Riverside Theatre#
6 — Minneapolis, Minn. @ State Theatre#
7 — Kansas City, Mo. @ Uptown Theatre#
9 — Boulder, Colo. @ Boulder Theater#
10 — Denver, Colo. @ Ogden Theatre#
12 — Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Wiltern#
13 — San Diego, Calif. @ House of Blues#
14 — Oakland, Calif. @ Fox Theater#
18 — Seattle, Wash. @ Paramount Ballroom#
19 — Portland, Ore. @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall#
March
4 — Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street
5 — Glasgow, U.K. @ ABC
7 — Birmingham, U.K. @ Birmingham Institute
8 — Bristol, U.K. @ Bristol Academy
10 — Manchester, U.K.@ Manchester Academy
11 — Leeds, U.K. @ Leeds Academy
13 — Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix
14 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
16 — London, U.K. @ Hammersmith Apollo
*=with Wye Oak
#=with Mountain Man