With their latest album, The King is Dead, the Decemberists, a Portland, Ore.-based band, have made up for the spectacular failure that was 2009's The Hazards of Love and possibly gained new fans with the different sound in their fourth full-length album.

The Decemberists' previous albums have all had more of a British influence than American, and their songs have dealt with mostly European matters (the song "The Infanta" from 2004's Picaresque is about a Spanish coronation).

In that respect, The King is Dead is an altogether more American album, with folk influence and songs about American geography — tree trunks and streambeds, for example, in "Rise to Me." The track "Calamity Song" is about a speaker who believes that "California succumbed to the fault line."

With several acoustic songs like "Rise to Me," "January Hymn" and "June Hymn," The King is Dead shows fans that the band's failed venture into pro-rock in 2009 was just a fluke and that the Decemberists aren't a one-note band.

Still present are frontman Colin Meloy's vocals, guitarist Chris Funk's memorable riffs as well as Meloy's penchant for big words and pedantry. This album is great in my eyes; but if that's not enough, it also topped the Billboard 200 list the week it was released, and it's worthy of a listen.

David J. Salazar is a senior at Santa Fe High School. You can reach him at davidjsalazar@gmail.com.