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April 30, 2025 11 mins

By the time The Decemberists released "Picaresque" in 2005, frontman Colin Meloy had been honing his narrative, storytelling style of songwriting for more than half a decade. Despite having dabbled in the theatrical side of indie rock with both Castaways & Cutouts and Her Majesty, Picaresque brought it to a whole new level. This is the story of that album, and how The Decemberists made history cool.

Watch the episode on YouTube and go deeper with more video episodes. The YouTube episode includes reference links to audio/video clips featured in the episode.

🎧 THE DECEMBERISTS ON VINYL:

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Poetic Wax is a weekly music history video series and podcast hosted by Andy Fenstermaker, where he digs into the record collection he's been building since the 1990s to uncover the sometimes little known or little told history from within.

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