The Hazards of Concept Albums

 

Funny – the narrative and efforts made to segue one song into the next only underscores how underdeveloped the songs are on the Decemberists’ Hazards of Love. Tracks rely on good riffs, familiar refrains and Colin Meloy’s so-clever writing, but I could really use a chorus and bridge – a fully developed song as opposed to a movement. Their prog-folk remains often engaging, but here it’s rarely satisfying.