Tom Lynch

Indie-pop genius Colin Meloy delivered his best work earlier this year with "Picaresque," a theatrical record of epic scope that tells tales of sports, prostitution, Portuguese princesses and cold-blooded revenge. Possibly the record of the year, "Picaresque" begins with a thundering, viking-like beat that leads into "The Infanta," one of the band's best ventures in historical obscurity, a dynamo of idiosyncratic brilliance. Meloy doesn't shy away from the somber, either, with the emotionally taxing "The Engine Driver" and the album's closer, "Of Angels and Angles," a whispery confession of love and loss, a private moment within one of the most impersonal records in memory, a sweet, catastrophic send-off. Two shows at Metro should do the trick before Meloy and company stun us again.

The Decemberists play October 18 and 19 at the Metro, 3730 North Clark, (773)549-0203. (2005-10-11)

Also by Tom Lynch

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When you think of the dynamic duos of rock n' roll, who comes to mind? Plant and Page, Daltrey and Townsend, Morrissey and Marr? Those partnerships will always hold their spots on the musical mantel of ingenuity, but in the modern age of indie pop, Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla should be viewed as colossal giants
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Bob Mould's legacy, a term that would probably make him chuckle, took the inevitable detour at the end of the nineties when he decided to hang up his guitars
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In a Great State
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Invasion of the Parrotheads
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Free Space
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