The Decemberists Announce New Album 'As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again'

Today, they share its second single "Joan in the Garden," a 19-minute prog rock epic that closes out a correspondingly lengthy album. According to press materials, As It Ever Was, which was co-produced by bandleader Colin Meloy and Tucker Martine, is Decemberists' longest album to date, fleshed out into a double LP and broken into four "thematic" parts.

Meloy shared of the single:

“Joan in the Garden” has been kicking around as an idea since the I’ll Be Your Girl sessions. I got into a Joan of Arc kick after reading Lydia Yuknavitch’s beautifully batshit novel The Book of Joan. I wanted to make my own version of Joan — but the song that came was as much about the creative process as it was about the actual woman, about angelic visitation and creative visitation and the hallucinogenic quality of both.

Listen to it below with the album's tracklist.

As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again:

1. Burial Ground
2. Oh No!
3. The Reapers
4. Long White Veil
5. William Fitzwilliam
6. Don’t Go to the Woods
7. The Black Maria
8. All I Want Is You
9. Born to the Morning
10. America Made Me
11. Tell Me What’s on Your Mind
12. Never Satisfied 
13. Joan in the Garden