A BAND has written a few albums, covered the usual topics: boys and girls, the state of the world, half-baked politics. What now? The only course of action is the rock opera.

And so, with their fifth release, the Oregon alt-rockers go where angels fear to tread. Bolstering their prog credentials, The Decemberists tell the story of a star-crossed love affair between a woman and the local lycanthrope. Yes, a werewolf. Half a dozen or more musical themes recur throughout the album’s 17 tracks, as folk guitars make way for Deep Purple-influenced Hammond organs and metal riffs. This does, granted, sound a bit rich, but The Hazards of Love is brilliantly executed.

The fantastical conceit behind it all may not be particularly compelling, the music is. Becky Stark, of Lavender Diamond, provides the ethereal vocals of Margaret as she sings back and forth with her lover, Colin Meloy’s werewolf. It’s difficult to engage with their singular narrative, but you don’t have to be copping off with teen wolf in the local woods to know about the hazards of love.