Another Decemberist Triumph

Occasional discordant hurdy-gurdy riffs which make me want to tear my skin off aside, I love The Decemberists. Sometimes I can think about only The Decemberists for minutes at a time, which is a big deal since I have ADD and rarely think about any one thing for longer than three seconds. However, Jenny Conlee does not have a pleasant voice. It's not her fault, and she plays the pump organ beautifully, but her voice is just irritating. She nearly ruined the otherwise celestial "Mariner's Revenge Song" on Picaresque. That's why I'm ecstatic that The Decemberists asked Laura Veirs to sing the part of Girl in "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)". Instead of Conlee's Baba-yaga screeching, Veirs brings a sensitive, mellifluous tone to the song. Because I am a closeted hopeless romantic, this bittersweet dialogue between a Confederate soldier dying on the battlefield and his pregnant sweetheart at home, while hearkening to Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain and no doubt countless other Civil-war tales, is my favorite song on the amazing The Crane Wife. It is their most sophisticated record yet.
Should The Decemberists get any better, they may reach true artistic perfection, and then all other musicians will be forced to kill themselves because they will never measure up.