Pitchfork

The Decemberists' "We Both Go Down Together" shows the Pacific Northwest band in jangly, doomed-romantic mode, with only the occasional multi-syllable rhyme like "veranda" / "Miranda" betraying the group's more, um, whimsical tendencies. Originally from Picaresque (Pitchfork's #26 album of 2005), the song has since appeared in live renditions on the band's iTunes-only Live from SoHo EP and radio station comp Live at KEXP Volume 2. Colin Meloy's solo acoustic version, here from the Decemberists frontman's upcoming live solo album, cuts away the original's menacing orchestral ornamentation and hammering snare drums, leaving the focus on the song's tale of two lovers who, unable to gain their parents' consent, leap to their deaths-- "but our souls are flying." When I reviewed Meloy's live show in early 2006, the song struck me as an example of how Meloy's reedy voice had grown richer with time on the road, but the appeal of this recording is more in the intimacy of the performance than any technical advances in Meloy's wobbly vibrato or acoustic strums. "Wait for it," he jokes to the crowd before delivering the song's final word. All of which brings me to yet another Morrissey reference.

MP3:> Colin Meloy: "We Both Go Down Together"
[from Colin Meloy Sings Live!; due 04/08/08 on Kill Rock Stars]