We're calling all bed wetters and ambulance chasers

The Decemberists make music for theater geeks. I just know these guys read too much in high school and worked the spotlight for their school's production of a Midsummer Night's Dream. At least I like to imagine so, because it makes their music seem plausible. What else could explain the pirate rock?

Castaways and Cutouts is full of chimney sweeps, gin runners, legionnares and vagabonds with their petticoats, pipes and other ephemera. It's a rich and detailed world that could only be created by someone with a little too much time on their hands.

So how's the music? It definitely evokes a mood and I often find that I have to be in a certain mood myself to enjoy it. Sometimes Castaways and Cutouts feels a little too twee - like it's trying to hard. Other times it feels like a an old letter, something that's beautiful and rarely done these days. If you can get past the initial shock and strangeness of it all, there's some great music to be had by The Decemberists.