355) The Replacements - Let It Be

I have talked about Echo in Byres Road ran by two brothers before. I had an afternoon of watching the football in a nearby pub and had a look round in there for half an hour before the second match kicked off. They had The Replacements Tim cheap. I had heard of them so thought I’d give it a go. One of the brothers asked me if I owned any of their other albums and then proceeded to fill me in on what I was missing.

I left with not just Tim but Sorry, Ma, Forgot To Take Out the Trash, Let It Be and Hootenanny. You can all decide if he was one of the world’s greatest salesmen or that phrase “a fool and his money is easily parted,” applies. Whilst you decide, remember I already had a few pints in me.

This is in the days of portable CDS players, so the next few days was an extensive listen to justify spending all that money, anyone who knows The Replacements knows it was money well spent.

Over a nine-year career, a band that was often viewed as ramshackle, released seven albums and Let It Be was their third.

This was a huge step forward for the band after the punk of their debut and the more progressive sound of Hootenanny with all of them involved in the songwriting as they rattle out eleven songs in just over half an hour.

Lead singer Paul Westerberg has a throaty lived in rasp of a voice that fits perfectly over the garage rock. Opener I Will Dare skips along with added Peter Buck guest guitar and the mandolin that appears is a bonus, insanely catchy and infectious.

Favourite Thing and We’re Comin’ Out they show they still have their punk credentials with powerhouse drumming from Chris Mars. Androgynous is just Westerberg on piano and remember this is 1984 where he tackles a song singing about gender non-conforming people, they were never going to make millions but Westerberg really didn’t care, it’s a marvellous song as is Unsatisfied all slowed down acoustic guitars with Westerberg crooning over the top, his songwriting taking this record and the band to another level.

See Your Video is a three-minute song with two and a half minutes of the band riffing before Westerberg shouts out the ending, when they lock on to a riff, they really made exhilarating music.

The record ends with another heart felt vocal on Sixteen Blue and Answering Machine is rough and ready, almost demo like as voices talk over the songs ending.

It’s not a perfect record Gary’s Got a Boner is mindless nonsense and the cover of Kiss’s Black Diamond I do not need to hear again but they are a band that have rightly received praise since they split and deserve to be heard.

7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Unsatisfied