The Decemberists' new album The Hazards of Love is replete with all the lush verbage and delicious acoustic hooks you expect, but with a twist. Hazards, which breaks March 24, mixes the sprawling plotline of the opera with the electric guitars and everyman voice of prog-rock--thus coining the genre rock-opera. The story traces the drama of lovers, kidnappers, and a possessive mother through character arcs that at their worst are predictably bohemian, but at their best, are what Decemberist fans have been waiting for since 2006's Crane Wife. Hazards is a Grimm's Fairytale set to the harmonies of accordions, hammer dulcimers, mandolins, a marxophone and the staple acoustic guitar that demands listening with the brain. 

The only thing more eccentric than the Decemberists' arsenal of instruments is their vocabulary. Nouns like "blackguard," "pall" and "taiga" feel like relics retrieved from the backrooms of thrift stores, and the ten-dollar adjectives would make any English teacher squeal with glee. At times, the album deserves a glossary. 

Still, don't assume the Decemberists write only for bookworms and spelling-bee champs. Folkophiles and singer-songwriters alike are drinking the album in. Guest vocals from Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, The Spinane's Rebecca Gates, and Robyn Hitchcock lend more than harmony; they lend credibility to a prog-rock concept album. 

Leads on the album are William, the earnest hero (voiced by Colin Meloy); Margaret, his true love (Becky Stark); the Forest Queen, William's envious mother (Shara Worden); and the rake, Margaret's kidnapper (Colin Meloy, again).  

Worden's performance as the possessive Forest Queen steals the spotlight, if not the show. Her dusky liquid voice proves too muscular for the typical Decemberesque acoustic strumming, and Worden sings over a leitmotif of metal guitar revs and a cymbal crashes with a limberness and range that leave the albums other female voices sounding frail, if not pre-pubescent. 

The album was conceived when front-man Colin Meloy happened upon a copy of Anne Brigg's EP The Hazards of Love (1966). The British folk revival album lacked a title track, so Meloy took it upon himself to write one. That single track, plus a few character arcs and leitmotifs, became the Decemberist's Hazards.  

The Decemberists set precedent for such a lengthy musical narrative with The Crane Wife's "Island," a 13-minute ballad and Picaresque's "The Mariner's Revenge Song," a 12-minute sailor's jig. Then there's the "The Tain," a retelling of an Irish folk tale which sprawls for 18 minutes. In a way, a rock-opera was inevitable, and the album listens like a novella- poignant but short. 

Even on a disc stitched so seamlessly together, there are stand out tracks. "The Wanting Comes in Waves" deliciously pairs the harpsichord twangs of William's plea with the metal stomp of the Forest Queen. The instrumental "Interlude" follows and proves that Meloy and guitarist Chris Funk can still do delicate. "Annan Water" delivers the mellow strumming and the gas needed to roll the album in to the finish.