The Replacements' Let It Be: (33 1/3)

One of the greatest moments of College Rock in the 1980s, Let It Be had a huge impact on the fans who fell under its spell. For Colin Meloy, growing up in Montana - a state that's strangely missing from the tour itineraries of almost every band - the album was a lifeline and an inspiration. In this disarming memoir, Meloy lovingly recreates those feverish first years when rock music grips you and never lets go.

About the Author :
Colin Meloy is the lead singer and song writer for the Decemberists. Their first two albums, Castaways and Cutouts and Her Majesty the Decemberists, have been released to widespread critical acclaim. He lives in Portland, OR.

Review :
Growing up in cultural isolation in Montana means that whatever creative influences you encounter are ones you found yourself. For a young music fan, it's frustrating: no one tours there, cool people leave, etc. So when you run into something like The Replacements' seminal Let It Be, it's akin to water in the desert. If you're Meloy, leader of the Decemberists, it can change the direction of your life. This book won't tell you much about Let it Be or The Replacements, but it well conveys the grip that something like "Sixteen Blue" can have on a person- and why. When Paul Westerberg singe "Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime" in "I Will Dare," it can resonate like a call in the dark. Meloy recounts finding a shrine in the band at the 400 Club in Minneapolis in 2003, and his reaction is priceless. A great record becomes an active, emotional experience that stays with you forever. For Meloy, it helped in setting the course of his future, and he expresses how and why in a compelling, engaging style. Willed or not, Meloy seems vulnerable in Let It Be, the 16th entry of 33 1/3's essays on really important albums series. The books typically boast chip-on-shoulder critical rigor; by contrast, Meloy reduces Let It Be to a small but crucial role in his own coming-of-age memoir. First reounting his purchase of the album as a grade-schooler, Meloy then concentrates on his punky, homoerotic adolescence in cornfed, homophobic Montana. In each anecdote, Let It Be plays deus ex machina, swooping down to rescue the young Meloy from his identity crises. These are solid short-short stories with bona fide epiphanies--that they shed light on Meloy's past only makes them more engaging. Meloy is a student of fiction and his imaginative songs for The Decemberists document just that. But here, Meloy treats his affiliation with Let It Be as a metaphor for youth, his experience surrounding it almost a bildungsroman-all through the use of memoir. Meloy's voice is similar to that of David Sedaris, finding comedy in small things, finding uplift in sadness. In Meloy's remembrances we recall what it is to discover music, to fall in love with it (as many of us did before we fell in love with people, leaving the music of our youth our only true first love). This one's a keeper. Meloy skirts any sort of criticism or analysis of the Replacements' Let It Be, focusing instead on how the album fueled his love for music and performance in a memoir of his Montana childhood--guaranteeing frustration for Mats fans and glee for Decemberists fans.