Portland indie rockers The Decemberists strayed far from expectations on their new album “The King is Dead,” released earlier this month.

“The King is Dead” is unexpected, brilliant and country-tinged, abandoning the epic conceptual progressive rock of the band’s last two records and completely reinvigorating their sound.

“Epic” is fine, but a poppy collection of songs, like this one, is truly refreshing.

After sounding like nearly no one else for their first five albums, The Decemberists aren’t afraid to let their influences shine through this time out.

“This is Why We Fight,” sounds like a marvelous long-lost song by The Smiths.

“Calamity Song” is reminiscent of early (like Murmur-era) R.E.M., which comes as no shock as R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck plays on the track, as well as two others on the album.

Most surprisingly, “Rise to Me” sounds like the band doing their version of a classic Rolling Stones ballad like “Winter” or “Angie.”

The lyrics are the only (very slightly) disappointing part of the album.

Whereas many of their older tracks like “The Crane Wife” and “Eli, the Barrow Boy” managed to tell fantastic, full-fledged stories in their reasonably short run times, the songs making up “The King is Dead” are non-specific and feel like they were written to fit with the music and little else.

The lyrics are certainly good enough as they are, but since their earlier albums were so wondrously eloquent, this is a bit of a letdown.

Fortunately though, like on the early R.E.M. albums that heavily influenced the band, when the music is this good instrumentally, the lyrics can be complete and utter nonsense and it still makes for an absolutely incredible album.

We’re only a month or so into the year, but the breezy, beautiful “January Hymn” is an early contender to make my list of best songs of 2011, and its companion piece “June Hymn” isn’t far behind.

I doubt this album is what many fans expected from the band, though I can’t imagine any fans being particularly let down by it.

“The King is Dead” is The Decemberists’ best album since “Picaresque” and well worth checking out if you’re a fan of the band or indie pop in general.