This song is a welcome divergence from the Decemberists’ folky, historically founded tales of misery and sorrow. The tone is a consistently defiant up-tempo addition the album’s story.

As the Rake wails out his chorus of “alright,” he falls into a tightly worded enunciation of anger backed by some electric sounds. As a result, their competition yields a heavier, rock band sound for The Decemberists. “This Is Why We Fight” addresses the vast waste and tragedy inherently present in war and includes lines like “Come attrition, Come the reek of bones, Come attrition, Come hell” making a pretty clear anti-war statement.Īlso taken from The Hazards of Love, The Rake serves a character that competes with William for Margaret’s love. This is one of the more political songs by the Decemberists, but it follows their fairly consistent moral stance. Lines like, “when we arise from the bunkers” to “here all the bombs will fade away” show that things might be a bit complicated in “Sons and Daughters.” Yet, with Conlee’s delicate harmony and accordion talents, as well as Meloy’s bouzouki bursts, the song ends up being a post-apocalyptic good time. The Portland band garnered some pop culture cred when it appeared in an episode of The Office, playing in the background as the Schrute family sat on the porch of their beet farm.Īs for the song itself, it’s a slower-paced folk song that that generally keeps up a message of positivity-that is, until you dig deeper. From 2001’s debut EP 5 Songs through 2015’s What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, here are the 11 best songs by The Decemberists. But this musical and thematic expanse has earned The Decemberists staying power, as the band has gone on to fill venues around the world. Over the course of the group’s nearly two decade-long career, they’ve produced quirky songs in an expanse of topics that range from the sentimental to the mundane to the terribly morbid.

The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Ore., encompassing every stereotype that overly broad genre from that hipster-ridden town can touch.

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