The second batch of expanded remastered cd’s of The Replacements is as much of a labor of love as the first four. The exhaustive liner notes and the meticulous detail former manager Peter Jesperson attributes to the bonus tracks (which sometimes double the number of cuts on a given cd) depict a dramatic backdrop to music that is wholly gripping on its own terms. Truth be told, the casual music lover who discovers The ‘Mats via these releases, not knowing their history, might very well come away convinced this Minnesota quartet is one of the finest rock and roll bands America’s produced in the last twenty years…or perhaps longer!
Tim (Rhino) ***1/2: In part by having Ramones’ drummer Tommy Erdelyi produce their Sire Records debut, The Replacements disavowed a backlash that arose from signing with the label of that band (and Talking Heads). But most importantly, the quartet performed a host of excellent songs like "Hold My Life" and "Bastards of Young" where the resonance of the production matched the group’s own abandoned playing. Yet, in just another instance a string of similar ironies, the capper on this generally thunderous album is "Here Comes a Regular," where author Paul Westerberg acknowledges the passage of time through his guileless vulnerable voice as much as the vivid lyrics.
Pleased to Meet Me (Rhino) **** After an agonizingly slow departure during the course of the previous album, original lead guitarist Bob Stinson departed the ranks of the ‘Mats which consolidated the band’s strengths (like the backbone of his bassist brother Tommy), so that producer Jim Dickinson who had worked with the Stones as well as Westerberg’s idol Alex Chilton, could open up the sessions in Memphis. Consequently, the cracked romanticism of "Valentine," sounds like a natural evolution for the group, while the lush arrangement of "Can’t Hardly Wait" proffers a vulnerable anticipation its electric counterpart sacrifices in favor of adolescent restlessness.
Don‘t Tell A Soul (Rhino) **** While the public reception of Pleased to Meet Me didn’t meet commercial expectations, thus fueling the intrinsic ambivalence of The Replacements about their career path, the group probably never sounded more professional than here, at least on the surface. Much of the streamlining has to do with the official enlistment of guitarist Slim Dunlop who could play as noisily as he could tunefully within recurring mixes of acoustic and electric guitars like that of "Talent Show" (and it’s precursor “Portland”) within which benevolent defiance, the ‘Mats sums up the quandary of every great band faced with compromise.
All Shook Down (Rhino) ***1/2: The final Replacements album is summarizes their Sire years (the actual anthology All For Nothing/Nothing For All overlaps these reissues only slightly), Session players like Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin participated in Westerberg’s co-production with Scott Litt, who had recently been working with R.E.M. but whoever’s participating swings with the panache of intrinsic to tunes like “Attitude" and “Merry Go Round.” It’s a tribute to their own identity, anchored in the slam-bang drumming of Chris Mars, that even today, The ‘Mats remain "Sadly Beautiful" indeed.
