Receive Weekly Email and Text Message Updates:
Sign up for latest info on concerts, dining, promotions and more!
Go!

Top

arts

Stories

 
Text Size: A A A

Books

Pantalooned scalawag that he fancies himself, Decemberists' frontman Colin Meloy isn't above (or below) the occasional hyper-urbanism. Early on, there's a "mohawked man pointing an extended finger . . . at my grandfather and I." Three pages later, Meloy deals his highfalutin parlance yet another blow: "He asked my sister and I . . . " Is indie rock's favorite fable maker being picaresque, or just getting caught with his knickers down?

Meloy on the 'Mats: Are you satisfied?
Meloy on the 'Mats: Are you satisfied?

Details

Let It Be
By Colin Meloy
33 1/3 (Continuum), 106 pp., $8.95
Buy this book

Related Content

More About

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 recounting his purchase of the album as a grade-schooler, Meloy then concentrates on his punky, homoerotic adolescence in corn-fed, 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.

Did I forget to mention that Let It Be is a pretty good '80s rock record by the Replacements? For however much the 'Mats meant to Meloy, Let It Be's musical merits and the band's ungoogleable history—save a tacked-on fictionalized explanation for the album's cover art—don't seem to interest him that much. Before it's Art, it's Meloy's. Replacements fans will retch at that thought, Decemberistas will salivate, and fans of both should try Valproate.

 

more by Nick Sylvester

Write Your Comment

*indicates required fields. Please enable browser cookies before filling out this form. All reader comments are subject to our Terms of Use. By clicking Add Comment, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and agree to these Terms.

Comments may take a few minutes to process and appear on the site. Please do not click the "Add Comment" button again while your comment is being added.

  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *

    (The four characters are not case sensitive):

Music Recommendations

User content provided by LikeMe.net + Village Voice

Webster Hall

New York, NY

Spotted Pig

New York, NY

Corner Bistro

New York, NY

Schiller's Liquor Bar

New York, NY

Gramercy Tavern

New York, NY

Pacha

New York, NY
Give your recommendations on LikeMe.net >>

Village Voice on Digg