What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
| What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World | ||||
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| Studio album by The Decemberists | ||||
| Released | January 20, 2015 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, folk rock, indie folk | |||
| Length | 52:57 | |||
| Label | Capitol (US), Rough Trade (Europe) | |||
| Producer | Tucker Martine | |||
| The Decemberists chronology | ||||
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| Singles from What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 77/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| The A.V. Club | (B) |
| Consequence of Sound | B- |
| PopMatters | 8/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 5.6/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Slant Magazine |  |
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World is the seventh studio album from The Decemberists, released on January 20, 2015. The album's title comes from a line in the song "12/17/12", a reference to the date of Barack Obama's speech in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and lead singer Colin Meloy's conflicting feelings about the shooting and his happy personal life.
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World received mostly positive reviews. It currently has a metascore of 77 and user score of 8.1 from Metacritic.The Boston Globe described the album as one of the band's "most enjoyable and lively efforts in recent memory",The New York Times noted that What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World "strikes a note of pop concision and maturity, building on what worked on ‘The King Is Dead.’ Lyrically, there are fewer thistles and minarets and palanquins — and, musically, less digressive excess — than once made up the Decemberists’ trademark style." Jeremy Larson of Pitchfork Media was a detractor, bemoaning the album as "overlong and under-ambitious", though appreciating that listeners "start to see Meloy himself more than ever". Larson also wrote highly of "Make You Better", stating "The band has never lacked the musical bona fides to write a great anthem."
The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on its release, selling around 50,000 copies in the United States in its first week. It also debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums, and No. 1 on the Folk Albums chart. The album has sold 123,000 copies in the United States as of October 2015.
All songs written by Colin Meloy.
According to the liner notes of What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.
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Wikipedia