From Pitchfork comes news that The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife (one of this publication’s favorite albums of 2006, back in the day) will be getting a super-deluxe vinyl and Blu-ray box set reissue for its 10th anniversary. The album represented an ambitious turning point for the Portland-based indie rock band: it contained some of their most eclectic material (e.g. their prog suite “The Island”), but also found them trying production and instrumentation that was closer to what was then the mainstream of alt-rock. Its follow-up, The Hazards Of Love, would become the first Decemberists album to chart, paving the way for the unexpected commercial success of The King Is Dead.
The Crane Wife box set (due, appropriately enough, in December) will consist of 5 LPs: two for the album and three for B-sides, outtakes, and home demos, such as alternate versions of the Laura Veirs duet “Yankee Bayonet” recorded with other vocalists. Also included will be a Blu-Ray of a 2006 concert that was originally filmed for NPR and an accompanying booklet featuring an essay by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a Decemberists super-fan and fellow traveller in field of literate, history-based rhymes. (There are also notes by Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke, but that guy will write liner material for anything that comes in a box.)
The Crane Wife: 10th Anniversary Edition will be released December 9th and is currently available for pre-order. The first 500 copies will be signed by the band.