Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXI--The Decemberists: June Hymn

This week's tune is part of what I had in mind when I started Friday Night Jukebox--a chance to feature songs that weren't hit singles, or may have been overlooked on albums both best selling and those that reached a smaller audience.  And let's face it:  as most albums only have a couple of hit singles (if that), we music fans spend an awful lot of time listening to and enjoying songs that no one (be it the artist or the record company or the producer, et al) thought had much of a chance at commercial success.

While The Decemberists (another in a long line of artists introduced to me by my daughter, via their song "July, July!") have been around for just north of sixteen years they are still comparatively new to many of the previous bands featured here.  Named for an 1825 civilian insurrection in Russia, the Decemberists formed in 2000 and have been going strong since.  They've released seven studio albums, 9 EPs, had a #1 album, earned a Grammy nomination, and have quite the reputation as live peformers, most notably for their stage show encores which act out historical events (usually with local roots) or the songs themselves, all with audience participation.  They also get bonus points for being early supporters of one Barack Obama, who we miss as President more and more with each passing day.

Fun Fact:  In 2004. the Decemberists released an EP called The Tain, which was an eighteen minute song divided into five parts which was loosely influenced by an Irish epic, Tain Bo Cualinge.  Near as I can tell the Irish prose work had something to do with the stealing of cows, which may help to explain why there isn't much of an audience for epic mythology anymore.  While definitely worth a listen, it's also not a song you want to listen to when you're in your happy place....

Released on their The King Is Dead (the title is said to be an homage to The Smiths' The Queen is Dead) LP in 2011, "June Hymn" is about the beauty of Mother Nature on an early summer day in the small town town of Springville Hill.  It's a portrait of the little things--ivy growing, thrushes and wrens singing, the surprise and wonder of seeing a cardinal--all with an underlying question of whether the hymn is for the day or for a special someone (or both) who may (or may not) be in an emotionally stable place.  It's as peaceful of a song as I can ever remember hearing--the lyrics are really stunning for a pop song in the way it captures the natural surroundings and beauty of individual moments, especially in reminding you of summer day in June.  The music is, like the song, simple: a guitar, a harmonica (emaycee fave!), and a lightly strummed cello (I think).  In the end it's a paean to the beauty of a simple world that isn't always so simple...and it gets extra props for being the only song I know of that uses the word "panoply"...

Lyric Sheet:  "And you were waking/And day was breaking/A panoply of song/And summer comes to Springville Hill..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee