The Decemberists announce new double album ‘As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again’

nme.com:

The Decemberists are back, and have shared details of a brand new album called ‘As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again’. Check out the proggy new single below.Revealed today (March 19), the new LP marks the band’s ninth studio album, and first since taking a six-year hiatus.Set to be structured as a double album, ‘As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again’ was produced by lead-singer Colin Meloy and Tucker Martine, and is set to feature a variety of star-studded collaborations with the likes of The Shins’ James Mercer and R.E.M’s Mike Mills.It is set for release on June 14 via YABB Records (Thirty Tigers), and the band have today shared the intriguing new single – a 19-minute-long prog rock epic titled ‘Joan In The Garden’.“‘Joan in the Garden’ has been kicking around as an idea since the ‘I’ll Be Your Girl’ sessions,” said Meloy of the inspiration for the track. “I got into a Joan of Arc kick after reading Lydia Yuknavitch’s beautifully batshit novel The Book of Joan.

I wanted to make my own version of Joan — but the song that came was as much about the creative process as it was about the actual woman, about angelic visitation and creative visitation and the hallucinogenic quality of both.”According to a new press release, ‘As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again’ is not only set to be the longest album that The Decemberists have shared to date, but is also looking to be their most empathetic and accessible.“It’s 13 songs like semaphores of mutual recognition for our fraught times and faint hopes.