the unthinkable has happened...

guys, something awful has happened. i just downloaded the decemberists' new album (picaresque) and, well, i don't like it. i just don't like it at all. i never thought something like this could happen to me. i mean, i absolutely fell in love with castaways and cutouts from the first listen. same with her majesty the decemberists and five songs EP - and the tain too. when i saw colin meloy on his solo tour a few months back i didn't really like the new songs he played, but i thought it was just because i love the old stuff so much, and that maybe they weren't as good as they are on the album because he didn't have the band with him. but i like them even less on the album than i did live. the one exception: eli, the barrow boy. that has a very castaways and cutouts sound, which makes sense because it is intended as a sequel to leslie anne levine, that album's opener. 16 military wives is okay but just okay. the picaresque opener, the infanta, is just plain awful.

any thoughts? anyone else disappointed by this album? perhaps we can form a support group of some sort?

this really deflates my euphoria about seeing them in concert next month.