It's rare to come across such specific and purposeful prose in modern pop. But, alongside Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and the Decemberists' Colin Meloy, John Darnielle is helping bring fine lyric writing back to life - NY Daily News.
The album is described as a “full-on musical,” telling the story of a shipwrecked crew of sixteen men, only three of whom survive a catastrophic storm.
Of the 800-plus songs he has recorded, only a handful directly concern his own life experience; The Sunset Tree's 13 tracks, written after Darnielle's stepfather passed away in December 2003, are the bulk of this small subsection.