After releasing their most critically acclaimed album to date, “The Crane Wife,” back in 2006, The Decemberists have readied themselves for the release of their newest effort, “The Hazards of Love,” March 24. The Decemberists have continually improved upon the sound they started out with on their first release, “Castaways and Cutouts” (2001); this evolution of sound has reached its highest point on “The Hazards of Love” as everything seems to click at the right time for Colin Meloy and company.

Following in the footsteps of previous albums such as “The Crane Wife” and “Picaresque” (2005), “Hazards,” too, takes on a form of a concept album as Meloy narrates a continuous story from beginning to end. According to a press release from the band via Top40 Charts and Capitol Records, the album is based on “Meloy’s long fascination by the British revival in the 1960s.” Meloy used as inspiration for his “Hazards” an EP of the same name released by Anne Briggs in 1966. The goal was to solely form a song with the title “Hazards of Love” but what started with just a song culminated into 17 tracks of music. These 17 tracks are put together to tell the story of Margaret who is “ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William.”

This story begins with an instrumental track, “Prelude,” which, as the name describes, flows right into the first title track of the album, “The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle The Thistles Undone).” “Hazards 1” quickly shows the ravaged love of William as Meloy sings “My true love went riding out in white and green and grey/past the pale of Aurthur’s wall where she went to stray/and there she came upon/a white and wounded fawn/ooh the hazards of love.” With these lyrics is a song full of folk guitar and percussions, which echoes closely to the sound that Her Majesty (2003) captured.

The following song, “A Bower Scene,” quickly changes the sound of the album as it starts with a “pounding” beginning as drummer John Moen slams away on his drums. As the song continues, the influence that classic heavy rock has had on this album is more evident with its stereotypical sounding guitar riffs that the genre has to offer. This heavy sound transitions smoothly in sound but a little shocking in vocals, to the song “Won’t Want For Love (Margaret in the Taiga)” which features the same heavy rock riffs but this time with female vocals layered on top.

“The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid” is arguably the best track on the album as it contains all the elements of the album up to this point; folk guitar intro, a trade off between strong vocals from Meloy and his female counterpart, heavy percussions, and the heavy rock riff, which has established itself as one of the primary focuses on the album.

“The Rake Song” the first track made available to the public off of Hazards is one of the catchier songs on the album as it brings back classic Decemberist form with vocals that just don’t seem to mix well with its instrumental counterpart but somehow has the listener wanting more. It is a song that would seem to fit well on “Picaresque” but still has made a pretty good home for itself on Hazards.

The album ends on several good notes, such as “Annan Water” and the fastest in pace of the four “Hazards” title tracks, “The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)” as the upbeat instruments and harmonization of youth vocals bring the full meaning of the song to effect. Hazards ends on its final title track, “The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)” as the mood is taken down several notches to a purely acoustic song as Meloy cries out to end the album “these hazards of love/never more will they trouble us.”

It may be hard to say that “The Hazards of Love” is The Decemberists best release, thanks to the many successful releases that they already have under their belt, but it does seem to be the case since it is easily their most complete album. “Hazards” is a rock opera done right for a change as the listener can follow the story from beginning to end not only by the lyrics but by the familiar riffs, percussion beats and trade offs between male and female vocals that show up continuously throughout the album to help remind the listener of what has happened up to this point in the story. Even though there has been many good releases thus far in 2009, there is little hesitation here in saying that “The Hazards of Love” is the year’s best album up to this point.