The Crane Wife
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| The Crane Wife | ||||
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| Studio album by The Decemberists | ||||
| Released | October 3, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | March–June 2006 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, folk | |||
| Length | 60:15 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Tucker Martine and Christopher Walla | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
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| The Decemberists chronology | ||||
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The Crane Wife is an album by The Decemberists, released in 2006. It was produced by Tucker Martine and Chris Walla, and is the band's first album on the Capitol Records label. The album was inspired by a Japanese folk tale, and centers on two song cycles, The Crane Wife and The Island, the latter of which was inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest. National Public Radio listeners voted The Crane Wife the best album of 2006.[1]
The album cover was made by Portland artist Carson Ellis, long-time girlfriend (and now wife) of Colin Meloy, who has created artwork for each of their albums.
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[edit] The story of The Crane Wife
The Crane Wife is an old Japanese tale. While there are many variations of the tale, a common version is that a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health. After he releases the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries. Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous clothes out of silk that they can sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her making them. They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he soon makes her weave them more and more. Oblivious to his wife's diminishing health, his greed increases. He eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.
Band leader Colin Meloy found a version of this story and decided to write music based on it.
In a January 2007 interview given on the NPR show Fresh Air, Colin Meloy gave this synopsis of the story:
- "It's a story about a peasant in rural Japan who finds a wounded crane on an evening walk; there's an arrow in its wing. He revives the crane and the crane flies away. A couple days later, a mysterious woman shows up at his door and he takes her in. Eventually they fall in love and get married. But they're very poor, so she suggests that she start weaving this cloth which he can in turn sell at the market—the condition being that when she's weaving it, she has to do it behind closed doors and he can't look in. So this goes on for a while and they actually become kind of wealthy. But eventually, his curiosity gets the best of him and he looks in at her while she's weaving and it turns out that she's a crane and she's been pulling feathers from her wings and putting it into the cloth, which is what makes it so beautiful. But him having seen her breaks the spell, and she turns back into a crane and flies away. That's the end."[2]
[edit] When The War Came
This song is a portrayal of the 900 day Siege of Leningrad during WWII. During this siege, the German army surrounded the city entirely, preventing anything from going in or out. As a result, many died of starvation, and the final death-toll is estimated to be over one million dead. The song also has a political undertone to it; it is stated that despite the fact that people put their faith in the government which swore to protect them, they ended up being left unprepared and unequipped to fight the Germans off.[3] The song references Nikolai Vavilov, a Russian botanist who was murdered by Stalin, in the lyrics.
- "The last great book I read was Hunger by Elise Blackwell. It’s about the siege of Leningrad in World War II, and there was a botanical institute. During the siege, which lasted a long time, the entire population were starving, but all of the botanists in the institute swore themselves to protect the catalog of seeds and plants and things, from not only a starving population, but also from themselves. It’s pretty amazing. I actually ended up writing "When the War Came", a song on the new record, about that." - Colin Meloy[4]
[edit] Shankill Butchers
Shankill Butchers is a song about the splinter group of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Shankill Butchers. The UVF is a Protestant paramilitary organization that is currently at war with the Irish Republican Army. The Shankill Butchers split off of the UVF in the mid-70's and carried out a series of grisly murders. These are the basis of the song. The Butchers abducted over 30 random Catholic citizens of Northern Ireland and killed them in the middle of the night. The lines "The Shankill Butchers ride tonight//You better shut your windows tight" are a warning to protect yourself from being abducted and murdered by the Butchers.
[edit] Track listing
- "The Crane Wife 3" – 4:18
- "The Island" – 12:26
- "Come and See"
- "The Landlord's Daughter"
- "You'll Not Feel the Drowning"
- "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" (duet with Laura Veirs) – 4:18
- "O Valencia!" – 3:47
- "The Perfect Crime #2" – 5:33
- "When the War Came" – 5:06
- "Shankill Butchers" – 4:39
- "Summersong" – 3:31
- "The Crane Wife 1 & 2" – 11:19
- "Sons & Daughters" – 5:13
[edit] Bonus tracks
- "After the Bombs" (iTunes bonus track) – 5:04
- "Culling of the Fold" (Tower Records bonus track) – 4:24
- "The Perfect Crime #1 + The Day I Knew You'd Not Come Back" (Starbucks bonus track) – 15:17
- "Hurdles Even Here" (Starbucks bonus track) - 4:31
[edit] Reception
The album was well received by critics, earning an 84% positive out of all reviews culled by Metacritic.[5] It was ranked #41 on Pitchfork Media's list of the top 50 albums of 2006. Humorously, Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "the best Jethro Tull album since Heavy Horses."[6] The album has sold 284,000 copies in the United States up to December 2008.[7]
[edit] In popular culture
"The Crane Wife 3" has been featured in several commercials and television shows, including:
- "We," a Mike Mills-directed commercial for AT&T made in partnership with Team USA in the 2008 Summer Olympics.[8]
- An episode of the television comedy Scrubs entitled "My Friend With Money."
- An episode of Skins entitled "Maxxie and Anwar."
- The trailer for the film Sunshine Cleaning.
- Covered by Marianne Faithful on her album Easy Come, Easy Go. She performed it live when she appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, March 31, 2009, and on Later Live, presented by Jools Holland, transmitted on 14th April 2009 on the British BBC2 TV channel.
[edit] References
- ^ NPR Music: NPR Listeners Pick the Best CDs of 2006
- ^ NPR's Fresh Air: Interview with Colin Meloy of the Decemberists
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Metacritic: The Decemberists: The Crane Wife (2006): http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/decemberists/cranewife
- ^ "Positively Prog", Jim DeRogatis, Chicago Sun-Times, Nov 5, 2006
- ^ Cohen, Jonathan (2008-12-10). "Decemberists Back In 'Love' On New Album". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/decemberists-back-in-love-on-new-album-1003921518.story. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
- ^ AT&T "We" commercial credits
[edit] External links
- [3]
- Decemberists Push the Envelope on 'Crane Wife'
- Crane Wife Review and NPR interview with Colin Meloy on YellowSubterfuge.com
- NPR Listeners Pick the Best CDs of 2006 - The Crane Wife picked as #1
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