The Replacements' Let It Be

I've read the other reviews and I noticed the poorer ones concerned the fact that this is not a typical 33 1/3 book -- it is mainly the coming-of-age musings of The Decemberists' singer/songwriter Colin Meloy and how "Let It Be" had a major influence on his life and music. If you've never heard of Colin Meloy or The Decemberists, I must be honest and say you may not enjoy this book nearly as much as I did. Meloy is one of the best at what he does at the present moment, and this nostalgic book takes us back to his elementary school days in Montana where there were only two local record stores that mostly sold Top 40 music. It's Meloy's uncle that first introduces the him to The Replacements, and the record (actually cassette) was soon to be the main soundtrack for his adolescent years. You won't find Meloy picking through each song and breaking down what Paul Westerburg was thinking or feeling when he wrote them. Meloy talks about how these songs affected HIM, and he sparingly quotes lyrics that were comforting to him at the time, an awkward pre-teen who shied away from mainstream music once he heard such bands as Depeche Mode, Robyn Hitchcock, Guadalcanal Diary, and many others. "Let It Be" spoke to Meloy in grand ways, enabling him to grow up with a sense that *someone else* out there knew exactly how he felt. This book brought back so many memories of my own youth (Meloy is 4 years younger than me) - listening to bands like R.E.M. and The Smiths and how my friends would just stare at me when I talked about them and couldn't believe I wasn't into AC/DC or Judas Priest. Bands like The Replacements changed my life, much like Meloy, opening up a a broad spectrum of emotions and feelings that made me feel like I was perhaps just a little different from my friends, but in no way odd. "Let It Be" the album is the soundtrack for an entire disaffected generation of music listeners raised on Top 40 but who rebelled against it. This book is a perfect complement.

Yesterday, a box of (expected) goodies from Amazon.com came in the mail for me. I ripped it open with glee and my eyes fell upon Colin Meloy's book (above). About an hour later I had finished reading it and was off to The Decemberists message board (where I heard about it) to post my delight. I don't know if you guys have heard of the 33 1/3 series... I had, but only vaguely. Basically its a series of short books written by artists about the most important album in their life- or something to that effect. Colin wrote about The Replacements' album "Let It Be." It reminded me a bit of the Aerosmith autobiography "Walk This Way" in its narration and stylings... although MUCH shorter. It is a great, fun little read. I'm sure many of you would also see the similarities between yourselves and Colin's touching and freshly honest account of childhood and music appreciation. From his discovery of bands, to first record purchases, its a story any true music fan can identify with. Like Colin, I too have a box of old cassette tapes under my bed... I used to make mix tapes religiously. I remember seeing the skater kids and wanting to be hardcore like that, but I just wasn't and couldn't swallow that fakeness of pretending to be. Anyhow, if you're a real music fan or have an interest in getting to better know any of the specific people who wrote books for 33 1/3, its a GREAT series and I can't wait to read some more of them. If you're a Decemberists fan, you have to read Let It Be.

This was my first 33 1/3, and not knowing what to expect, I enjoyed the prose and slice-of-life nature. After reading many more 33 1/3s, I'm pretty upset that the chance to collect all the stories of the forward motion that lead to this record. Sure there are plenty of other places to find it, including Our Band Could Be Your Life, but nothing tops the sweetness and conciseness of a well-written and well-researched 33 1/3. While this installment may have moments of the former, it is certainly not the latter.

I'm a big fan of the 33 1/3 series and love their aim to tackle a look at an album with whatever level of technical study or impressionism that the author feels is appropriate; however, this book seems ill-fit for the series with how little it touches on the band itself and really goes overboard into Colin Meloy's life. I can see this more fan service for Decemberists fans, but this is one of the shortest books in the series and with that has the lowest amount of interaction with the album itself, long stretches capture Meloy's childhood with details typical of a coming of age story without a real coming of age moment: just some moments flirting with the affects of music and how extravagant life is as a child. There is an excellent early moment in the book where he writes about the childish punk energy the album gives him and a friend who explode with the inclination to dance, mosh, and spray paint without a violence or destruction. It is the only great moment of the book with far too much of the rest meandering on disconnected stories before abruptly having a chapter looking back on the present and then a handful of sections fictionalizing a few moments between the member of The 'Mats themselves. Not enough insight into the album, bland insight into Colin himself, and a failure to convey the excitement that this album can bring, it is a truly wonderful album so full of life, love, and even the silliness of children ("Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out", "Gary's Got A Boner") that would have been so easy to cover with a look back at one's childhood being affected by the album, but somehow Meloy misses it. Not quite sure what he was aiming for with this one actually, or who he expected his audience to be; but this is clearly an early entry in the series written by a writer who (understandably) did not quite understand where the series was or would go. Which is too bad because there are very little written on The Replacements at this time.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with Colin Meloy's reminiscences about his youth, in which the Replacements feature in passing as one of the bands he liked and he briefly recalls buying the album in his local record shop, but you won't learn anything much about the Replacements themselves or the album in question from reading this and it seems misleading to market it as part of a series about albums. While there's something to be said for not forcing your authors into an editorial straitjacket and making them all write to the exact same formula, nonetheless a serious problem with this series is the vast range of approaches taken by each writer and the utter lack of consistency from title to title. Some focus on factual background and commentary about the band more generally, and when and how the specific album came to be, often with much of that information sourced to interviews with those who were involved in making it (and not just the band) - which seems to me what the average reader might be looking for - while others are far more self-indulgent: either extended and pretentious reviews and personal analysis of the album or something far more tangential, like this one.