Review

Sketches from an indie-pop classic.
When Picaresque, the Decemberists' meisterwork-to-date, was released on vinyl, the group included these four songs (one done twice), which collect, as the band's web site put it, "all of the (listenable) out-takes from the Picaresque sessions." It's easy enough to see why lead Decemberist Colin Meloy wanted to keep the album to 11 songs; even music as sprawling as his needs breathing room. But any of the songs on Picaresqueties (not, as Meloy has pointed out, a real word) would have fit on the original disc just fine if they were as heavily arranged as the tunes that made the album. Instead they're stripped down, with mostly piano and guitar as accompaniment, although the version of "Bandit Queen" that opens the EP features a tap-dance solo. As titles like "Constantinople" and "Kingdom of Spain" imply, Meloy's lyrical focus remains entrenched firmly in storybook-land: "The king and the queen of Spain/With their long, unpronounceable names/Grace the table at the long-lost kingdom of Spain." But just like on the full album, Meloy makes his stories stick.