THE DECEMBERISTS The Crane Wife (2007 UK 10-track CD album - Following on from their series of beautiful and fantastical albums brimming with flawless melodies and songs inhabited by casts of legionnaires, chimney sweeps, sea captains and seekersof all kinds, 'The Crane Wife' is the band's most ambitious and enthralling album to date; frontman Colin Meloy first came across the story of 'The Crane Wife' [a venerable Japanese folk tale] in the children's section of a bookstoreand together with Chris Walla & Tucker Martine has produced a re-imagining of its themes on a broader canvas)