What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World

Last night dad and I went to see, American-alternative-indie-folk-band, The Decemberists play at Brixton Academy in London. They are a band that we have both been itching to see play live for several years now, but never had the opportunity to previously. We were seated upstairs in the circle – I’ve never been upstairs in Brixton Academy before – which meant we were by no means close to the stage. However, that didn’t matter one bit as we were directly in the centre and had a clear view of the stage, albeit at quite a distance, and the sound was perfect.

We knew they’d be great live, having seen a few videos of them playing in the past and having listened to their live album (which for a live album is actually really good – I say ‘actually’ because I’m not usually a fan of live albums). But I don’t think either of us expected them to be quite so incredibly good. I would definitely say that last night was up there with the best gigs I’ve ever been to. They don’t just play their songs, they perform them. I’d never really considered it before but they are a pretty theatrical band, in terms of the themes of their songs anyway.

This song, which was the [second] encore last night, pretty much sums up what I mean. (The Lego version is particularly good too!)

A lot of the songs that the band played last night were, unsurprisingly, from the latest album – What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. The album came out in January and, although I’ve been listening to it on Spotify, I hadn’t actually bought a physical copy. Yet. So, I decided to splash out and buy the vinyl version last night. It’s a double LP, which is a first for me, and it is beautifully packaged.

Back in November last year I posted the video for Make You Better, the first single from WATWWABW, here on my blog. The kaleidoscopic-style imagery is taken from the album artwork (also featured in that blog). But now I can hold the beautiful vinyl packaging in my own hands – and listen to the record(s) of course, which I’m doing as I write this.

 I particularly like the framing on the back.

I was quite surprised to find the image on the inside of the sleeve to be this way around.

 The two inner sleeves, each a slightly different design.

As there aren’t actually enough songs on the album to fill four sides, only three, the fourth is
simply a laser-etched design (not to be played! because that would end in tears).

Now playing!