The words “Narrative-based progressive lit-rock” aren’t often called upon to describe many songs heard on the radio lately. However, they are words that most accurately describe Capitol Records’ rookies The Decemberists and their most recent effort “The Crane Wife.”

The Decemberists have long been gaining popularity in the underground music scene because of their incredibly descriptive lyrics and unique music involving many eclectic instruments. After last year’s release of the band’s third album, “Picaresque,” the Decemberists moved from Washington-based indy label Kill Rock Stars to major label Capitol.

In terms of style, “The Crane Wife” hearkens back to the band’s experimental EP, “The Tain,” more than in the direction “Picaresque” seemed to predict. This is by no means a step backward, but a move down a path it seemed the band abandoned after a single foray.

This leaves “The Crane Wife” still recognizably the Decemberists, but also shows a clear evolution toward a more complex and more progressive sound than could be found on their earlier LPs. With obvious influences from prog-rock greats like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and even Kansas, “The Crane Wife” has a new sound, indeed.

The production on this disc is also a progression from past work. Death Cab for Cutie’s Christopher Walla returns to assist the band in production, this time with a major-label budget. The production isn’t necessarily overdone, but at times the sound is uncomfortably overproduced in comparison to their earlier material.

The title track of the album is broken into three parts, spanning two separate tracks. The opening song on the album is “The Crane Wife 3.” Parts one and two come toward the end of the album.

The title of “The Crane Wife” is a reference to a Japanese children’s folktale, and the three parts of the song chronicle the story. The intervening songs carry a similar aesthetic, but avoid being a concept album.

The second track of the album is similar in that it comes in three parts. It’s titled “The Island” and contains within it “The Island,” “The Landlord’s Daughter” and “You’ll Not Feel the Drowning.” Throughout its three distinct movements, the song includes a lot of synthesizer, violin and a two-minute intro that has echoes of Pink Floyd.

“The Perfect Crime #2,” the album’s fifth track, is a different sound for the Decemberists. It has a chugging disco-sass that immediately reminded me of Belle & Sebastian’s “Your Cover’s Blown.”

My hands-down favorite on this disc is “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then).” The song is about a dead Civil War soldier and his left-behind sweetheart.

The Decemberists at their best make me want to live their songs. “Yankee Bayonet” is a perfect example of this. The lyrics hearken back to a much simpler time of hearts carved in tree trunks and county fairs that have been torn apart by the war: “But O did you see all the dead of Manassas / All the bellies and the bones and the bile? / No, I lingered here with the blankets barren / And my own belly big with child.”

This song has an absolutely brilliant melody strummed out on acoustic guitar with electric guitar highlighting and a solid drum beat. As always, the Decemberists embellish the soundscape with tambourine, piano and organ. Folk singer Laura Veirs performs guest vocals on a track in a duet so rich and haunting that I’ve decided to check out her solo material.

The other tracks are all noteworthy: the single, “O Valencia,” tells a Romeo and Juliet-type tale, “Shankill Butchers” features an eerie music-box sound and “When the War Came” is an evident critique of the Iraq war.

While the album has a much more solemn, even pessimistic, tone than usual for the Decemberists, the final track, “Sons & Daughters,” is clearly meant as a ray of hope. After a slew of songs about death and war, the final moments of the album finish with the lines “Take up your arms, sons and daughters / We will arise from the bunkers / By land, by sea, by dirigible / We’ll leave our tracks untraceable … Hear all the bombs, they fade away.”

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