He’s got a twelve-sided die

You’ve got to give the Decemberists credit for not caving to major label pressure. The group’s Capitol debut, 2006’s The Crane Wife, was far from radio friendly, including a 12-minute prog epic and a multi-song suite about a bird disguised as a human.

But The Crane Wife sounds positively tame compared to the Decemberists’ latest, The Hazards of Love, which is a full-blown rock opera about a woman named Margaret, her lover, and the jealous forest queen who attempts to derail their romance. The story is a bit like a Dungeons & Dragons game set to music, with different singers voicing each character—Lavender Diamond‘s Becky Stark plays Margaret, while My Brightest Diamond‘s Shana Worden is the queen. Dungeon Master Meloy acts as narrator, as well as voicing the character of “the rake.”

But even better than the story is the music itself, which includes recurring melodic themes and unexpected stylistic turns. In keeping with the group’s increasing pomp-rock influence, the album is heavier than anything they’ve done before; with its Sabbath-sized riffing and Worden’s massive, tremulous voice, “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid” could pass for a Black Mountain song. Similarly, “The Rake’s Song” features choppy powerchords and an ominous fuzz bassline befitting the tracks’s ugly subject matter (an infanticidal maniac). As well as making forays into noise pop and metal, The Hazards of Love also features some of the gentlest, prettiest songs the band has ever written (and that’s saying something). These sudden shifts in mood can make for an overwhelming listening experience, especially considering that each track segues into the next without pause.

The Decemberists’ theatricality has always been tempered by self-awareness, and The Hazards of Love is no different. As overblown as the album is, it comes off as funny, rather than self-important. It’s the kind of grandiose absurdity that made Sufjan Stevens‘s Illinois so bafflingly brilliant. Cynics need not apply, but if you’re willing to play along, The Hazards of Love is about as good as musical escapism gets.

Stream: The Hazards of Love

The album is available on March 24 via Capitol.