Search - Colin Meloy :: Colin Meloy Sings Live!

Great album for Decemberists fans

C. W. Hacker | Placentia, CA | 02/02/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I love all of the albums from The Decemberists. Though a big draw is the instrumentation, the main attraction is the lyrics and I do really like Colin Meloy's voice, so of course I didn't hesitate too much in listening to this album. As someone else put it, it does work really well, even without the extra instrumentation.



Though recorded across several concerts it is put together like one coherent show, so if you listen to it straight through it's a nice experience. However, I imagine after the twentieth time some of the banter - which I like and think is amusing - might get old. Fortunately, the longer bits are separate tracks, so you can skip them.



The music is all excellent, great guitar work and his singing is in top form. Of course, we expect this being that they must have chosen the best performances from the recorded shows to compile here :)



The best part for me is that while some of my favorite Decemberists songs are here and sound great, some of those that I didn't like or pay attention to as much on the albums work better here. Specifically, I'm referring to Red Right Ankle and The Gymnast, High Above The Ground. I liked these songs on the albums, but often found myself skipping them for whatever reason. Hearing them on this album made me appreciate them much more. There are no poor tracks here. The non-Decemberists songs are very good, with a similar but slightly different feel, as you would expect. The weakest song is probably the opener, Devil's Elbow, but I still do like it. Just not as memorable as most.



Bottom line, any Decemberists fan should have this, but I wouldn't give this to someone as their introduction or only exposure to the band."