Album Review: Colin Meloy Sings Live! by Colin Meloy

It's fitting that head Decemberist Colin Meloy's first "official" release as a solo artist would be a live album, as the bespectacled auteur has already self-released (in very limited quantities and only available at shows) a collection of Morrissey covers, an EP of Sam Cooke songs, and a set of tunes from British folk legend Shirley Collins. On Colin Meloy Sings Live!, the focus is on the author's own material, touching on everything from the Decemberists catalog and recent unreleased solo material to songs from his first band, Tarkio. Recorded over a span of two weeks in 2006, Meloy strips things down to just acoustic guitar and voice, allowing audiences an atypically arrangement-free peek into the noted bibliophile's vast arsenal of song.

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It’s hard to imagine anyone other than drooling Decemberists fans giving a damn about this pointless release. Their frontman hit the road in 2006, played some acoustic version of Decemberists songs – not from the hyped and heralded Crane Wife – and now there’s an unspectacular document of it. Songs from The Crane Wife probably aren’t absent due to Meloy’s curatorial decision but because of a stipulation by their new label, Capital, the major they jumped to after Portland indie Kill Rock Stars.

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