Stewart wrote:

There's also the
key point that the Decemberists are very much an indie buzz band of
the moment, having gotten a pretty significant amount of both press
ink and radio play for this album, and therefore I'm sure the backlash
has already kicked in in some quarters.

I add:

Paste Magazine reports that The Decemberists have just signed with
Capitol Records.

http://pastemagazine.com/action/article?article_id=2507

Again, as we both noted: This band is not for everyone. I understand the
criticisms entirely. I *still* love the record. I guess it's "one of
those records", kinda like The Darkness record, perhaps. I couldn't get
past even parts of the first 3 songs I sampled.

Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, etc.

Jeff Teez