The Replacements Let it Be (reissue)

For me, writing about the Replacements is difficult. It's next to impossible to for me to sound objective or have some kind of detached perspective. I heard "I'll Be You" on MTV and the radio when it was originally out, but in my world, they didn't really come to life for me until college. My roommate Jeff introduced me to the albums themselves and they ceased being a band I had heard of and became a band that hardly ever left my stereo.

My favorite Replacements (from here on referred to as "the 'Mats") record changed a bit over the years. I like the early, noisy garage racket of the first two releases when I first started playing in a band. I liked the latter day, major label stuff more earlier in my life, when I was college radio. But a few years ago, it became Let It Be and it's stayed that way ever since.

And that's really where what I have to say about the 'Mats stops to matter much. The story of why they are so good and why you need to hear their stuff is in the songs. Over the last almost 20 years, they've become like old friends, which is how most fans of the 'Mats think of their catalog. When you hear most people talk about the band, they talk about them like their a local band and they hang out drinking at the local bar with these guys. But I've yet to meet anyone who accurately describes the band without sounding like they're overthinking it. The music says it perfectly.

And, thankfully, Rhino Records have begun releasing the catalog with some unreleased material tacked onto each album, after years of rumors of their impending release. They started this week with the quartet of records originally put out by Minneapolis label TwinTone, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, the EP Stink, Hootenanny and Let it Be. There are merits and virtues to all of them, but I'll focus on the last TwinTone release.

It opens with the song that everyone should know, but probably doesn't, "I Will Dare". To borrow an overused music critic phrase and mean it for once, it's the hit that never happened. The greatest hit that never was. The monster hit from a parallel universe. Whatever makes you happy. Those kinds of phrases seem overused to me because it lessens the meaning of it when you need to use it. Like here. A killer riff. Great bassline. An incredible hook of a chorus. Mandolin. It's a classic pop song. An amazing song written by one of the best songwriters in music history, Paul Westerberg. He has tons of them and this could arguably be his best.

And I could take a paragraph to talk about each and every track from the original release. To gush over every second would make you doubt my sincerity. There's some great ragged rockers. Some incredible lyrics. Choruses that never leave your head. Excellent guitar playing. A drummer that expertly ties everything together in a way that just can't be imitated; believe me on that one...tons of bands almost sound like the 'Mats, but can't quite get there because it's really hard to play like drummer Chris Mars.

And it also has a Kiss cover. And "Sixteen Blue". And "Unsatisfied".

It's a classic.

So thanks to Rhino for also adding such things as a stellar cover of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy", some home demo stuff, a couple more covers. Getting all four reissues constitutes another new album or two, reason alone to go and shell out the money to buy them all over again. I've got two of them and need the other two. And listening to these songs makes me feel like I'm 18 and just discovered them all over again. Like I need to go pick up my guitar and write some songs. Even though I've most of all of this before, sometimes it can still sound like the first time again. Only some of the greatest music ever made can have that effect.

A couple of great interviews about the reissues and reunion rumors with Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson from Billboard magazine.