In The Decemberists' fantastical world, no story is left untold and no instrument unturned. While a child monarch receives a triumphant baroque pop parade ("The Infanta") and the pregnancy of star-crossed lovers calls for thick slabs of heavy guitar ("A Bower Scene"), a Japanese folktale of love and greed comes to a head in an epic union of Brit folk and prog rock ("The Crane Wife, Pt. 1 & 2").