For a band that has been around for over 10 years, The Decemberists still manage to experiment with each successive album they release. Most recently, their 2009 album The Hazards of Love created a rift in opinions among critics and fans: Some praised the ambitious album as a masterpiece, while others deemed it unnecessarily complex.  

In their newest album, after tuning down some of the lush instrumentation, grandiloquent lyrics and drama of Hazards, The King is Dead turns to a more folksy, country-tinged style, achieving overall simplicity.

The Americana album tells Western stories with pastoral images and pop-country guitar work. Frontman Colin Meloy goes back to basics with smoother, unadorned songs that put him in the spotlight; many songs sound as if it’s just Meloy singing alone while playing his acoustic guitar and harmonica a la early Bob Dylan.

The shift of moods from Hazards to King is clear after listening to the tone-setting opener of the album, “Don’t Carry It All.” Their choice to record the album in a barn outside Portland is immediately apparent. A heavy harmonica and confident beat are complements to the uplifting feel of the simple, somewhat nostalgic lyrics: “Let the yoke fall from our shoulders / Don’t carry it all, don’t carry it all.”

The album sounds like an homage to R.E.M or The Replacements, which makes sense since Peter Buck, the guitarist for R.E.M., contributes with a mandolin and 12-string guitar on some of the tracks. His influence can be heard in “Down by the Water,” including down-key notes, catchy melodies and sharp background vocals by Gillian Welch. Another Buck contribution, “Calamity Song,” is a pop number with jangle-guitar and ironic lyrics referring to “California succumb[ing] to the fault line” and “the year of the chewable Ambien tab.”

Meloy’s melancholy, while less intense this time around, has carried from album to album. The sound is clear in the Morrissey-tinged ninth track “This Is Why We Fight.” The crooning of Meloy continues in “Rise to Me,” though it is lyrically uplifting like the other tracks on the album. Meloy refers directly to his son Henry in the song, avoiding his signature complicated allegories or an excess of reach-for-the-dictionary words.

Twangy bluegrass song “Rox in the Box” sounds like a cheeky warning with thin lyrics and a catchy chorus: “If you make it to 10, you won’t make it again.” The band continues with the heavy country influence in their honky-tonk song “All Arise!”

The Decemberists’ use of optimism in lyrics and excessive banjos and harmonica almost gets to be too much — unless you are one of those people who can stand folksy music for more than one song at a time.

However, The Decemberists’ new record and shift back to simpler music proves to be a smart move for the talented band. Rather than throwing excessive SAT words and over-the-top orchestral music at the listeners, the band has a quiet confidence and it seems as if the band truly enjoyed making the album.

Meloy’s less obvious virtuosity and more pleasant, rustic songs-for-songs-sake may not be the most innovative, memorable album, but it’s a step in the right direction.