My band has just started playing, "Down by the Water", the latest single by The Decemberists. Although I am a big Decemberists fan, I haven't bought that album yet, and it was my friend Tom that brought the song in. I think it's a great song - I like the lyrics, the melody, the harmonies and the arrangement. It has been duly noted that the song sounds a lot like REM's "The One I Love", but the similarity is not jarring or offensive to me. And the fact that Peter Buck plays guitar on the track adequately justifies the similarity as far as I'm concerned. But I started reading the reviews of the Decemberist's albums on All Music Guide, and I was astonished to see the number of artists that they are compared to. This is a band with a very distinctive sound and style. A band that cannot be justly accused of pandering to the masses or following the latest styles. And yet the critics seem to try desperately to show that their creative energies are reflective at best. On the AMG site, "Castaways and Cutouts" is described without reference to any other artists. So far so good. But the remaining 5 releases draw comparisons to Belle & Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel, Al Stewart, REM, Kurt Weill, Morrissey, The Who, Queens of the Stone Age, Fairport Convention, The Waterboys, Deep Purple, Emmerson Lake and Palmer, Edie Brickell, Donovan, Pentangle, Horslips, Steeleye Span, The Incredible String Band, Iron Maiden, Rush, Jethro Tull, Robyn Hitchcock, Shirley Collins, Tom Petty, Paul Simon, Camper Van Beethoven, Key Lime Pie and Led Zeppelin. Really? They sound like those guys? I don't know how they left out Tiny Tim, Lawrence Welk and John Tesh.