Very fair and thoughtful review. In fact, a lot of people assume Cobain was directly influenced by The Replacements, when apparently, he wasn’t that big of a fan. And I wonder if he wasn’t because to some degree they pre-empted his themes. Musically, I don’t see as much impact as Pixies had on him either.First of all, no one can play 20th Century Boy like T Rex. Some songs shouldn't be covered unless you do something different and every version I've heard is basically a copy. It's just a brilliant song, but then I'd say that as I love T Rex :)
As for the album, my overall impression is that it's very hit and miss (for me anyway). I really liked the opening song "I will dare" and I was looking forward to the rest of the album. However, until it got to "Androgynous", it washed over me as, whilst it's post punk, the songs weren't that good and it was a hard listen. I also don't particularly like that "middley/tinny" sound that some bands had in the 80s - The Smiths are similar in that I quite like the songs, but the production lets them down (for me).
"Black Diamond", "Unsatisfied" and "Seen your video" were decent songs and I really liked "Gary's Got A Boner" and the tracks after. Gary's was the kind of punk I like - it needs to have some "drive" from the guitars.
Overall, it's not an album I would probably not come back to although I've added a few songs to a Spotify playlist which I play quite regularly. Again, you can hear how they probably helped to link punk to what becomes an indie-style or even to grunge. I wouldn't be surprised if Nirvana etc liked them.
However, as we've said before, it's a great thread to find new music. I'd not heard of the band or album before and I'm glad I've heard it and I've found some new (well, old!) songs that I really like so thanks for that @FogBlueInSanFran!
Overall it gets 6/10 from me :)
If that’s the same version as mine from back in the day, does it have Life’s A Gas in the B side? What a great tune that is!!Jeepster was my first single (still got it). One of a string of absolutely brilliant singles from T.Rex; from the same album as Get It On, of course.
Great review as usual. I think you might like some of The Replacements later records, especially Pleased To Meet Me, or All Shook Down (which is basically Westerberg solo) when the production became cleaner. I see the stylistic bounce-around and the dusty production of this record as two of its greatest charms, but that is absolutely just me, and I don’t always find that approach winning in a record. Just depends on the band. It suits these guys I think.Teenage angst is one of the classic tropes of rock and roll but the fact that it often results in shouty music helps explain why this is not in my wheelhouse. It probably says more about me and my tastes than the music, but I was never into this kind of stuff, even when I was a teenager.
However, when the album opens with the jangly guitars of “I Will Dare”, I thought I was going to be in for a pleasant surprise. I really like this song and the mandolin featured as the song draws to a close was a nice touch. Unfortunately, the next four or five songs pretty much sum up everything I hate about punk or punk-influenced music – I can’t always make out the lyrics, when I can make out the words, I’m not really bothered about what’s being said and there’s too much shouty stuff (although I must admit, “Here comes Dick, he’s wearing a skirt” made me laugh – obviously, the choice of the guy’s name is just as critical to the impact as the statement itself, so kudos there).
I’m not a big fan of covers but I don’t know the Kiss original, so “Black Diamond” was OK, but after the surprise of the first track, there’s still not much to write home about – at least in the positive sense. But then comes “Unsatisfied”, Paul Westerberg having slowed down the vocal a bit and this is an excellent rock track. In fact, everything from this point onwards is very listenable (even if “Gary’s Got A Boner” takes us back to the purile lyrics, it’s a half-decent rocker). The album closes with “Answering Machine”, which has an epic electric guitar figure, over which Westerberg asks, “How do you say you’re okay to an answering machine?”
Just out of interest, I then listened to Westerberg’s 1993 solo album 14 Songs. This is much more up my street – he’s cut down on the shouty angst, slowed down his vocals and I can hear what he is saying (the production is much better too). What’s really funny is that if you read the review on All Music Guide, the reviewer bemoans how the producer, Matt Wallace, is ruining Westerberg’s music. Matt Wallace has then come back as a user reviewer and given the original reviewer a right dressing down – very funny and worth a read.
Anyway, back to Let It Be. To repeat, this is not my kind of album, but I found just over half of it an enjoyable enough listen. “I Will Dare”, “Unsatisfied” and “Answering Machine” are excellent tracks, so I’ll give it 6/10.
Cheers. Might give them a listen just to understand the context.Great review as usual. I think you might like some of The Replacements later records, especially Pleased To Meet Me, or All Shook Down (which is basically Westerberg solo) when the production became cleaner. I see the stylistic bounce-around and the dusty production of this record as two of its greatest charms, but that is absolutely just me, and I don’t always find that approach winning in a record. Just depends on the band. It suits these guys I think.
The Album Review Club – Week #2
Let It Be – The Replacements (1984)
Selected by FogBlueInSanFran
View attachment 27561
Thanks, @RobMCFC, for starting this thread and selecting me for a review.
I love The Who’s Quadrophenia because it’s a story about a misfit kid trying to make his way in a world he feels is hopelessly stacked against him. When we were teenagers, I bet we almost all felt that way sometimes. We were also alternatively euphoric, depressed, weird, serious, ashamed, uncomfortable, embarrassed, brave, immature, goofy and introspective day to day and hour to hour.
The record I’ve chosen is a reflection of all those conflicts and mix-ups. It’s Let It Be by The Replacements, whom Rolling Stone once labeled as “the greatest band that never was.”
The Mats, as aficionados know them, were a ragged, semi-talented garage band who crawled out from under Minneapolis in the early 1980s. They were better known for their disastrous drunken stage performances than anything else. But in 1984, they released this complete U-turn.
Let It Be is, in a word, schizophrenic. It’s punk, then pop, then “classic” rock, then I-guess-you’d-call-it-country, then blues piano.
It's very much unlike The Lonesome Jubilee, which always knows where it’s going. This is a record with attention deficit disorder. It’s tight but messy; it has hooks and melody but it has noise; even its beauty has “rings around” its eyes. Tempos speed up, then slow down; instruments change mid-song. “We’re Comin’ Out”, for example, starts as thrash punk, then slows down to a lone piano and finger snaps, then speeds up again before devolving into cacophony.
But I love all the contradictions, conflicts and mix-ups here — they work because the record itself is about the contradictions, conflicts and mix-ups inherent in growing up. And The Replacements themselves were growing up.
All along, Let It Be maintains a sense of humo(u)r and never takes itself too seriously. And yeah — you can play it super loud. Really, really loud if you want.
“I Will Dare” sets up the tone of confusion right off — “How young are you? / How old am I?”, Paul Westerberg sings (warning: he only sort of sings) as he strums along, and then the record moves from age to age, topic to topic and style to style. I’m going to bounce around too, since The Replacements do.
There’s an ahead-of-its-time, and even touching, tribute to gender non-conforming kids. Before that, there's a fairly amusing song about a tonsillectomy told from the point of view of the doctor (“Let’s get this over with / I tee off in an hour”). Right afterwards, just to fuck with things more, they cover Kiss.
They diss “that phony rock and roll” on MTV (“Seen Your Video”) on the one hand, and complain about a girlfriend’s answering machine on the other (talk about relating!). There are two radically different paeans to sexual awkwardness: one for girls (“Sixteen Blue”) and one for boys (“Gary’s Got A Boner”).
In short — this is a record that always keeps you off balance.
But in the middle, crowning and cementing it all, is “Unsatisfied”, one of my very favo(u)rite songs of all time, and as important an anthem in tribute to young adults as “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. I see it as prophetic, a nod to the pro-Gen X, anti-baby boomer conflict that overwhelmed (white) American pop music seven years later when Kurt Cobain became a reluctant spokesperson for his generation.
Over the last few years, as I’ve watched my own kids become teenagers, and as I get older and my own teenage years fade hazily into the distance, this record speaks to me more and more and more. It barely missed the personal top 20 I submitted to @BlueHammer85 a number of months ago, but now I think it’s firmly there.
This is one of the all-time classics of alt/indie, groundbreaking, rightly adored by nearly every important music critic . . . yet it didn’t get enough votes from the great unwashed to displace the fucking Grease soundtrack.
Well, as The Replacements sing on “Favorite Thing”, “I don’t give a single shit.”
Happy listening!
PS. And yes — the band members picked the album name after deciding to title it after “the next song that comes on the radio” while they were sitting in their manager’s car. That just makes me love it all the more.
Interesting, my review would be very similar to Robs as I think we have the same taste in music.I was coming at it from a different angle than most in that I’ve gotGreat review as usual. I think you might like some of The Replacements later records, especially Pleased To Meet Me, or All Shook Down (which is basically Westerberg solo) when the production became cleaner. I see the stylistic bounce-around and the dusty production of this record as two of its greatest charms, but that is absolutely just me, and I don’t always find that approach winning in a record. Just depends on the band. It suits these guys I think.
If that’s the same version as mine from back in the day, does it have Life’s A Gas in the B side? What a great tune that is!!
Glad you liked it! I thought you might :)Well.. it's fair to say I enjoyed that far more than expected
First glace - 1984, Punk, a band I've never heard off - I wasn't expecting to much
but straight away it kicks off well with 'I will Dare' - a very decent opener, love the riff - sounds a bit like the Coral & the Strokes, in fact I'm wondering if the Strokes nicked this tune - sounds so familiar, sticking with the Strokes...'Answering Machine' - love this sound and the screaming desperation vocals
'Unsatisfied' lovely lovely track
but the one that even tops that is 'Sixteen Blue' - what.a.song. ! definitely the best vocals on this, love the tempo and it ends with an amazing guitar solo, i wish it carried on! ...superb.
few of the raw punk ones, are ok - but didn't do much for me like the ones above i've picked out.
overall, very very impressed. cheers @FogBlueInSanFran great pick.
8/10