LIMITED-EDITION DELUXE BOX SET AVAILABLE

A deluxe package (pictured below) is available via MyPlay Direct in the USA for £52.99. Contents include:

A. The deluxe box set components are housed in a two-piece rigid telescoping box.

B. 180G double vinyl with laser etching on side 4 held in gatefold LP jacket, signed by the band.

C. One Masonic banner (14” x 20”) printed on satin with dowel and hanging cord.

D. Three exclusive lithographic prints, designed by Carson Ellis, measuring 11.5” x 11.5," printed on heavy weight matte paper stock and placed in heavy weight folder.

E. Five patches, 50% embroidered with iron-on back, measuring roughly 2” x 2”

F. One exclusive t-shirt screen printed on 100% cotton. Unisex (navy) and women’s (burgundy) sizes available.

You can purchase this deluxe package HERE



What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, is the Decemberists 7th album. It’s the band’s most varied and dynamic work, both musically and emotionally.

Since their last album, The King is Dead, which went to No.1 in the US, the band have contributed a song to the Hunger Games soundtrack and appeared in The Simpsons. Colin Meloy, the band’s frontman, has also been working on the Wildwood series – a narrative saga about two seventh-graders drawn into a hidden, magical forest, illustrated by his wife, Carson Ellis.

Many songs on the new record represent the more personal side of Colin Meloy’s songwriting, a change from the strong narrative thrust that characterized much of the Decemberists’ work. “Writing books as this raw, fantastic narrator has been the outlet for that part of my brain,” he says. “Having a family, having kids, having this career, getting older—all of these things have made me look more inward. So some of these songs are among the more intimately personal songs I’ve ever written.”

Perhaps most notable is “12-17-12,” a song named for, and inspired by, the date that President Obama addressed the nation following the Newtown school shootings, and read the names of the victims. “I watched that speech and was hit by a sense of helplessness, but also the message of ‘Hold your family close.’” This bewildering, conflicted feeling came out in a phrase near the end of the song—“what a terrible world, what a beautiful world”—that gave the album its title.

Tracklisting:

1. The Singer Addresses His Audience
2. Cavalry Captain
3. Philomena
4. Make You Better
5. Lake Song
6. Till The Water Is All Long Gone
7. The Wrong Year
8. Carolina Low
9. Better Not Wake The Baby
10. Anti-Summersong
11. Easy Come, Easy Go
12. Mistral
13. 12/17/12
14. A Beginning Song