The Album Review Club - Week #145 - (page 1923) - Tellin' Stories - The Charlatans

FogBlueInSanFran said:
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.
Click to expand...
I’m curious about this album, Ive got a couple of the ‘Mats’ albums .
I heard them quite late as I got into Paul Westerburg first after seeing him perform on JuLes Holland , I went and bought’ Suicaine Gratification’ Which I love.
I then got the compilation’ All for nothing/nothing for All which I don’t think has any tracks from ‘Let it be on it’
They have written some great songs over the years ‘Bastards of young ‘ and ‘Sadly Beautiful’ to name but two.
so I’m looking forward to listening to this
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
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.
Click to expand...

So I've played it three times this morning whilst working. There's something to be said for short albums.

I played it before reading your review, which seems to sum it up well. I haven't had chance to delve into the lyrics carefully but it teen angst is the name of the game, I'm long past that anyway. Also, as you may have gathered by now, I'm far more concerned with how the whole thing sounds to my ears. Also, I simply can't do all the deep and meaningful analysis and writing that you do have a gift for. Although people do not listen heavy metal for reasons connected to the size of their dick or any other pretentious shit ;-)

Anyway, this song does a neat cover of a great heavy metal song (is the original HM?), which took me completely by surprise when those very familiar opening lines starting coming out the speakers by my desk.

There's some tracks on here that I like quite a lot aside from the mighty Kiss cover, the first and last ones for sure. A couple are a bit thrashy for my taste.

I'll need to have another listen or two before scoring it and I might even decide to purchase it if I can find a cheap copy on Amazon.

Anyway, thank goodness you didn't choose Husker Du.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
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.
Click to expand...
Have you anything else?








Just kidding. I’ll give it a spin on my own. Doubt it’s the missus’s taste.
 
Mancitydoogle said:
I’m curious about this album, Ive got a couple of the ‘Mats’ albums .
I heard them quite late as I got into Paul Westerburg first after seeing him perform on JuLes Holland , I went and bought’ Suicaine Gratification’ Which I love.
I then got the compilation’ All for nothing/nothing for All which I don’t think has any tracks from ‘Let it be on it’
They have written some great songs over the years ‘Bastards of young ‘ and ‘Sadly Beautiful’ to name but two.
so I’m looking forward to listening to this
Click to expand...
Absolutely LOVE “Bastards of Young.” Another one that’s great: “Alex Chilton.” Westerberg is or was once a very gifted songwriter.

BoY has one of my favo(u)rite all-time couplets — “God what a mess/On the ladder of success/Where you take one step/And miss the whole first rung”

I thought about doing “Pleased To Meet Me” (or even “Tim” — I think this crew might enjoy “Waitress In The Sky”) as it’s more accessible but “Let It Be” is more fun, more varied and more important.

It is difficult to understate the importance of The Replacements on American alternative/indie. Pixies are more important but The Replacements are more beloved by musicians.
 
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FogBlueInSanFran said:
Absolutely LOVE “Bastards of Young.” Another one that’s great: “Alex Chilton.” Westerberg is or was once a very gifted songwriter.

I thought about doing “Pleased To Meet Me” as it’s more accessible but “Let It Be” is more fun, more varied and more important.

It is difficult to understate the importance of The Replacements on American alternative/indie. Pixies are more important but The Replacements are more beloved by musicians.
Click to expand...
I agree ’Alex Chilton‘is a great track
I’ve got quite a few of PW solo albums and he can write a good song.

ive had a chats with quite a few American artists after gigs and a lot are influenced by the Replacements and are suprised I’ve heard of them.

btw great review wish I could write like that
 
OB1 said:
So I've played it three times this morning whilst working. There's something to be said for short albums.

I played it before reading your review, which seems to sum it up well. I haven't had chance to delve into the lyrics carefully but it teen angst is the name of the game, I'm long past that anyway. Also, as you may have gathered by now, I'm far more concerned with how the whole thing sounds to my ears. Also, I simply can't do all the deep and meaningful analysis and writing that you do have a gift for. Although people do not listen heavy metal for reasons connected to the size of their dick or any other pretentious shit ;-)

Anyway, this song does a neat cover of a great heavy metal song (is the original HM?), which took me completely by surprise when those very familiar opening lines starting coming out the speakers by my desk.

There's some tracks on here that I like quite a lot aside from the mighty Kiss cover, the first and last ones for sure. A couple are a bit thrashy for my taste.

I'll need to have another listen or two before scoring it and I might even decide to purchase it if I can find a cheap copy on Amazon.

Anyway, thank goodness you didn't choose Husker Du.
Click to expand...
I haven’t chosen Husker Du YET. :)
 
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