The Crane Wife | ||||
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Studio album by The Decemberists | ||||
Released | October 3, 2006 | |||
Recorded | March–June 2006 | |||
Genre | Indie rock, folk rock, progressive rock | |||
Length | 60:15 | |||
Label | Capitol/Rough Trade | |||
Producer | Tucker Martine and Christopher Walla | |||
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, Colin Meloy's wife, who has created artwork for each of their albums.
Contents |
The Crane Wife is an old Japanese folktale. 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.
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.[2] The song references Nikolai Vavilov, a Russian botanist who was murdered by Stalin, in the lyrics.
Shankill Butchers is a song about the splinter group of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Shankill Butchers. The UVF is a Protestant paramilitary organization. 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 7 random Catholic citizens of Northern Ireland and killed them in the middle of the night by slashing their throats. They also carried out several other shootings and bomb attacks, killing as many as 30 people. 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.
Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
The A.V. Club | (A) [3] |
Allmusic | [4] |
Being There Magazine | [5] |
Blender | [6] |
Music Box | [7] |
Pitchfork Media | (8.4/10) [8] |
PopMatters | [9] |
Robert Christgau | [10] |
Rolling Stone | [11] |
MusicOMH | [12] |
Subculture | (favorable) [13] |
Yahoo! Music | [14] |
The album was well received by critics, earning an 84% positive out of all reviews culled by Metacritic.[15] It was ranked #41 on Pitchfork Media's list of the top 50 albums of 2006. JustPressPlay named it the second best album of the 2000s.[16] Humorously, Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "the best Jethro Tull album since Heavy Horses."[17] The album has sold 284,000 copies in the United States up to December 2008.[18]
"The Crane Wife 3" has been featured in several commercials and television shows, including:
"The Perfect Crime 2" was played on the popular television show Gilmore Girls in an episode entitled "'S Wonderful, 'S Marvelous" (Season 7, Episode 4).
"The Island: Come and See" was played during the first episode of New Amsterdam.
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