I’ll Be Your Girl by The Decemberists

I'll Be Your Girl, the eighth studio album from Portland's the Decemberists, came out on Capitol and Rough Trade in March 2018, and it's the sound of Colin Meloy's band of history-minded storytellers deciding to plug in the synthesizers. With John Congleton producing, they reached for new instruments and chilly, pulsing textures, and several songs openly borrow the moody electronics of New Order and Depeche Mode.

It's a jolt coming after What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, but the band's bookish wit survives the rewiring, and Meloy still sings like a man spinning a tall tale at the back of the tavern while Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk, Nate Query and John Moen chase the new pulse. "Severed" and "Once in My Life" led the way as singles, and "Sucker's Prayer" rounds out a record that sounds like a band happily getting lost.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.