The Replacements: Letting it be

I couldn't help it. I had to write about this album, no matter how obvious of a choice it may be for unearthing a lesser-known but very influential album. \nComing at the end of the first punk movement but before the big alterna-rock scene, The Replacements blasted into the music world with ferocity and insight in the 1980s, offering a refreshing rock substitute for all the new-agey-pop-pansy-music on the airwaves at the time. Here was the solution for the kids who felt their musical muscle shrinking every time they turned on the radio. Here was a band to follow, an album to buy, a movement to idolize. And in 1984, they gave us Let it Be. \nPaul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, Bob Stinson and Chris Mars continued to give some real rock fans hope that it was possible to create something that sounded different than the rest of the sludge out there. Sure I didn't really live (consciously -- I was two when Let it Be was released) through the 1980s, so I can only imagine what it would have been like to hear the album when it was first released. But if it can sound new and musically insightful now, after the shifts in the musical currents over the past 18 years, imagine the effect of its sound on a real rock fan in 1984.\nThe 'Mats (as they're known by their fans), from Minneapolis, gave the newly cell-phone toting corporate world an alternative that went largely unheeded. The band was much to blame for its own unrecognized stature -- the 'Mats (at first) refused to make accessible videos for MTV, rarely showed up for a gig sober and played their one slot on "Saturday Night Live" roaring drunk. Yet, with Westerberg's and the rest of the band's developing songwriting skills, the band brought rawness and sensitivity in the same breath. Though only heralding one charting single, The Replacements are viewed as pioneers, and Let it Be is the classic 'Mats album. \nHere is an album that mixes rocking passion with social awareness, an album that starts pop rock, blasts through half the middle with punk and splays itself with beautiful ballads. It is the 'Mats' third full-length album and boasts songs of dissatisfaction during the decade of Mr. Money Maker. Let it Be is universal and personal. \n"I Will Dare" starts off the album with a happy shuffle. It shows one dimension of the complex 'Mats repertoire. The second track, "Favorite Thing," picks up the tempo before the band launches into the raucous rocker "We're Coming Out," a tune complete with screeching guitar solos and Westerberg's background screams. And in the middle, there's finger snapping. \n"We're Coming Out" paves the irreverent way for "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out," a snare-drum punching, distortion ridden tune with a chorus of "Rip, rip / We're gonna rip 'em out now." What is a better commentary on the health care system than the lines "Get this over with / I tee off in an hour / My Cadillac's running." Its irreverence shares the same spirit of track nine, "Gary's Got a Boner." \nNext up is "Androgynous." The song is beautiful. It's the story of Dick and Jane, who love each other and look the same. It's a song only the 'Mats could give us, about two kids who wear whatever they want and are confident in their gender. Westerberg sings "Today the people dress the way that they please / The way they tried to do in the last centuries," with a scratchy-voiced conviction that makes the song's sparse arrangement of piano, vocals and light percussion work. This is the song that really sets The Replacements apart from other punkers -- not only do they rock out with distortion, but they can break it down on the piano just as well. \nOne of the other four ballads on the disc is "Unsatisfied," a perfect mix of music and frustration with a bare-bones approach. The song again lets you hear why Westerberg is so good at what he does -- his vocals are just weak and furious enough to convey his desperation. He sings, "Look me in the eye and tell me / That I'm satisfied." It doesn't get much more real than that. \nThe Replacements end the album with perhaps the coolest concluding track ever. "Answering Machine" spews as much sadness, bitterness and feeling into a rock ballad as I have ever heard. Westerberg laces the song with the acidic lines "How do you say 'I miss you' to an answering machine / How do you say 'Goodnight' to an answering machine / How do you say 'I'm lonely' to an answering machine?" "Answering Machine" rings with distorted loneliness and leaves you with the guitar riff lingering in your mind's jukebox long after it ends.\nLet it Be's 11 tracks show just how good an album can be. With pop rock, punk rock, acerbic ballads and even one cover (KISS' "Black Diamond"), The Replacements stretch the limits of post-punk just about as far as they can go. \nYou need to buy this album! There is no substitute for The Replacements.