hey folks! we’re back with another review From the Vault, continuing the discography review of The Decemberists! this series of reviews covers the band’s whole discography, from 2003’s 5 Songs EP all the way to 2018’s Travelling On! this review was originally written in October 2021.

a shorter review this week, we’re looking at an EP consisting of the outtakes from The King Is Dead: Long Live the King

E. Watson is fucking great. love the dark, foreboding mood on this track, and the story’s great. Foregone’s got a hook chorus, it’s a nice song. Burying Davy’s alright, but its interesting that they had two tracks about burying a dude (albeit for different reasons) so close together). I 4 U & U 4 Me is my fave track on the EP. what a solid track. the vocal performance on the “i heard that your plans were all fouled up” verse are just excellent. oh dang apparently Row Jimmy is a cover of a Grateful Dead track. that’s neat. not a huge fan, but it ain’t bad. Sonnet is neat, and is based on a sonnet by Dante – the horn outro is great but the lyrical component is just aight.

faves – E. Watson, I 4 U & U 4 Me
dislikes –

yknow with these B-sides EPs i always find one or two tracks that absolutely shred, and then the rest are like “yeah i can see why these didn’t make the cut, lol”. this EP was enjoyable on the whole and a neat companion to the King Is Dead.

Love Live the King – 5/10

next we take a look at 2015’s What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.


first: 5 Songs EP | previous: The King Is Dead | next: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

all my reviews for The Decemberists