After I went through the entire Wynton Marsalis discography I had decided to leap into the Joshua Redman catalog. But after three of his records I decided to pause. I needed something other than jazz for a minute. So I haphazardly put on the first Decemberists album and there and then decided to give all their work a go.
I love The Decemberists. A friend told me me about them about 12 years ago. I was sorry to be late to their party because they are fantastic. They have become one of my favorite bands. They only have eight studio albums and I've listened to all of them many times, just not chronologically. It only took me a few days to go through all of them again in order and they are all great. Seriously, there is not a weak link in their catalog.
If someone asked me to list my favorite I would have a difficult time because they're all so good and their style does change subtly and not so subtly over the two decades they've been releasing music into the world. They are consistent in their excellence. Seriously, just now I was going through their album tracks deciding which one or two albums I would put on the top of my list. And I just can't do it. They are all that good. I love them all.
