Today, The Decemberists have released a new single, “Oh No!,” which appears on the band’s forthcoming new album that is chock full of The Decemberists’s most defining characteristics, vibrant storytelling, rich musicality and a cleverness that has become signature to Colin Meloy’s lyricism.

While talking about the band’s latest song, Melroy says: “Oh No!’ is the sort of song that just tumbles out of you. It all started with the first line: ‘It was on a wedding night / How they danced by the firelight’ and flowed from there.”

The artist adds: “In my mind, the narrator of the song is channeling the two brothers from Emir Kusturica’s immortal film, ‘Underground.’ This song is about causing havoc, causing chaos, its narrator forever followed by an even greater form of chaos, a great darkness. But it’s a darkness you can dance to!”

As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again is not only the longest Decemberists album to date but also their most empathetic and accessible, its 13 standout songs like “The Reapers,” “America Made Me” and “All I Want Is You”: As It Ever Was is the band’s sonic adventure into finding new boundaries to push by revisiting nostalgia.

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna