the decemberists - the infanta

Here she comes in her palanquin
on the back of an elephant
on a bed made of linen and sequins and silk
all astride on her father's line
with the king and his concubines
and her nurse with her pitchers of liquors and milk
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

Among five score pachyderm
each canopied and passengered
sit the duke and the duchess' luscious young girls
within sight of the baronness
seething spite for this live largesse
by her side sits the baron
her barrenness barbs her
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

A phalanx on camelback
thirty ranks on a forward tack
followed close, their shiny bright standards a-waving
while behind in their coach, in fours
ride the wives of the king of Moors
And the veiled young virgin, the prince's betrothed
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

And as she sits upon her place
her innocence laid on her face
from all atop the parapets blow a multitude of coronets
melodies rhapsodical and fair
and all our hearts afire
the sky ablaze with cannon fire
we all raise our voices to the air
to the air...

And above all this falderal
on a bed made of chaparral
she is laid, a coronal placed on her brow
and the babe, all in slumber dreams
of a place filled with quiet streams
and the lake where her cradle was pulled from the water
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

Funny, I was just thinking this morning that Meloy's lyrics are starting to wear a little thin with me. Don't get me wrong - the guy is a fantastic, literate lyricist. But, all this sea-faring, penny-farthing, barrow-boy-chronicling blather sometimes seems like too much. Can he really stretch it much further than three albums without coming off a little pretentious?

Maybe it was just my mood this morning. I was pretty pissy.

Agreed. But it's his nasally warble that usually does my head in.

i -heart- words & like the music behind the delivery.

go walk a plank modem!

I have neither tired of the lyrics nor the lyricist. I heart the decemberists!

I've been putting off reviewing this album, but now I don't have to, because you pretty much just wrote it for me.

Actually, I need to get my ass back in gear, so perhaps this should be the impetus for me to expand upon your perfectly-stated thesis above.

A few months ago, I checked out the lyrics to My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless".

They lyrics are as beautiful as the music.

you both are definite scallywags!