Album: Picaresque
Year: 2005
Like a few others of their Pacific Northwest contemporaries that started around the turn of the century — Modest Mouse, Long Winters, Death Cab For Cutie, etc — I missed the very early Decemberists albums, not discovering them until they made an album that one way or another cut through the static.
In this case, that album was Picaresque, which started the pattern that I would love a couple of songs on every Decemberists album, but never an entire album from start to finish, with the exception was 2011’s R.E.M.-influenced The King is Dead.
A jaunty, horn-filled tune, “16 Military Wives” is one of those songs that is so damn catchy it takes you awhile to realize that it’s really a protest song against Iraq 2.0, and the media lockstep supporting it.
Cheer them on to their rivals
Cause America can, and America can’t say no
And America does, if America says it’s so
It’s soAnd the anchorperson on TV goes…
La de da de da de-dadedade-da
La de da de da de-dadedade-da
Compared with — for example — R.E.M.’s typically low-key “Final Straw,” and Neil Young’s typically over-the-top Living With War, “16 Military Wives” strikes a perfect balance between being on point without being too strident.
Oh, and a weird piece of trivia. This song has two things in common with its “Certain Songs” predecessor: Chris Walla and John Roderick. Walla was the guitar player for Death Cab For Cutie and produced Picaresque and John Roderick sang part of the backing vocals of “Transatlanticism” and is prominent in the video for “16 Military Wives.”
Official video for “16 Military Wives”