LogFAQs > #972866308

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The Decemberists - The Abduction of Margaret & :The Queens Rebuke/The Crossing:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7DjRxbsw5iL7u2JMRzvQln?si=135c95164fd543ea

https://open.spotify.com/track/0ZzdSvryv7vR0aIggcPXi6?si=e434116acac24e8e

Estimated Score: ...what? [That's the official score. I may or may not convert that to a number in the future.]

I'm combining these songs because I'm not entirely sure why they're separate to begin with. Anyway, The Rake just really wants to sexually violate someone & coincidentally stumbles onto Margaret (?). Then the Queen feels the need to tell him who she is (??) & her backstory with William (???) & is basically "oh sweet, I wanted to get rid of her, you should totally do sex crimes on her!" (????). In exchange for violating Margaret, the Queen will help the Rake cross a deadly river (?????).

...I don't think I get any of this.

1: So the Queen wanted revenge and just kinda lucks out that a murdering sex criminal happened to be a couple feet away? Okay.

2: Why even ask the sex criminal to do sex crimes? I mean... he kinda... was already about to do that?

3: Why tell the Rake ANYTHING? "Hey, violate this girl for me! I need you to do it because my son, who I turn into a deer every day, is in love with her. You know, I saved him when he was a baby<" and like.... no one asked?

4: So, the Rake is just cool with all this? I know he's a mass-murdering fourth-wall breaking sex criminal, but I think he'd at least be vaguely bothered or confused by some of this?

5: ...Where did that river come from? Like, everyone keeps coming and going from this forest, right? If he couldn't cross the river, then either he shouldn't have been here to begin with or he could just... take a different route out of the forest? [I guess William is following, but The Rake is on a horse so I don't see how he could keep up?]

It is a this point that I once again have to check and see if I'm actually awake because I feel "this is a ridiculously dream sequence" makes far more sense than this being an actual story. And yet, here we are.

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The Decemberists - Annan Water:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1ox5ibMmY16SjwNNVW6FuB?si=6baa58ff4f8f438d

Estimated Score: 60.00

In which William begs the deadly river to let him cross. ....Wait, if he's close enough to know they went across the river, shouldn't he have heard the Queen's rambling song?

....oh wait, William has a horse as well.

..........how does the deerman have a horse?

..................I'm not dead, right? I've established this is not a dream sequence, but I'm willing to entertain the possibility that I'm trapped in a very musical purgatory.

Right. Well, I think I like this song. It's purely nonsensical. We've got a man, who is sometimes a deer, on a horse, singing to a river and vowing to let the river have his "precious bones" if it lets him save his true love. "YOU MAY HAVE MY PRECIOUS BONES!" is just... I don't know, but I'm not letting the song get less than 60 points with a lyric like that.

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The Decemberists - Margaret In Captivity:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7t3fbRtuaMY0iO5RNeWZJm?si=dd147781c0ac4f2d

Estimated Score: 54.06

Well, mercifully the Rake merely vows to do *things* to Margaret and tell her how hopeless things are. It's... fine enough. Nothing really happens, but I think I'm quite okay with nothing happening after... whatever the fuck the past several songs have been.

*sees that the Rake is going to be murdered by ghosts in the next song* ....Oh, I was almost worried this story was starting to become coherent.

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The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0qRHqLn1aeHT8JsgQIpaDb?si=531400b3a55a40aa

Estimated Score: 39.81

Nah, I'll pass on the creepy ghost children. I do like how the song opens with a sped-up version of The Wanting Comes in Waves, but I don't care for this from a musical or story standpoint. Musically, I don't like the ghost children choir, I just do not like the way the song sounds. Storywise, adding ghosts feels like a bizarre deus ex machina--after all this nonsense, our heroine is saved by GHOST CHILDREN.

I get the irony with the Rake saying he wasn't haunted by murdering his children, but then LOL HE WAS LITERALLY HAUNTED WHAT A GREAT PUN LOL. *headdesk*

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The Decemberists - The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5omE6DiO9yOinKugnIHlqW?si=2bebb6559ceb4524

Estimated Score: 55.00

A brief reprise. It's nice enough; I like how it's now more frantic & I'm an idiot for not catching the play on words with the metaphorical waves of the initial song and the literal waves from the river until right now, in spite of knowing full well from the final song's title that everyone was going to drown. Well played.

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The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2OnJ5RZuyi4dubXKY0gEWM?si=ef948ba6a3e44d53

Estimated Score: 66.93

Removing the song from the context of the rest of the album, I quite like this. Embracing your lover as you both die tragically is a bit of a cliche, but it's handled beautifully here with one of their best songs.

In context... it doesn't feel like a satisfying conclusion to anything. The Queen isn't even referenced, leaving her entire existence fairly pointless; for being a nigh omnipotent Goddess of Nature, all she really did was spy on her son having sex & telling the Rake to do what he was already doing. (Yes, if she didn't help the Rake cross the river, everyone would probably have survived.. but murdering everyone didn't seem to be her plan & with her powers, she could have just killed people directly if she wanted it).

Margaret got pregnant back in the first song and... nothing came from that. I was kinda expecting the Queen to save the baby in a history repeating sort of way, but I guess the unborn child died with everyone else?

Considering the ghost children saved Margaret, William didn't really accomplish anything? Yeah, yeah, tragic romance, he made it in time to die with her. Just typically the hero does something before dying tragically?

And... eh, it's fine. Just ignore how little sense getting to this point actually made and enjoy the doomed romance for its romantic doom-y-ness.

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So... that album was an experience. I am glad that I took the time to listen to it; while it's not a favorite, it was an unexpected journey. I thought knowing the mid-point (which recapped the early points) & the ending meant I had a good idea of what the story was... I did not. I very, very much did not.

I think I'll take tomorrow off... kinda need to decompress a bit after that experience, I think.