ARCHIVE
THE REPLACEMENTS
Tim (Let It Bleed Edition)
The punk-pop outfit’s Tommy Ramone-produced fourth, overhauled and expanded.
By Robert Ham
“Weary voice that’s laugh in’, on the radio once /We sounded drunk, never made it on”
REISSUES | COMPS | BOXSETS | LOST RECORDINGS
RHINO/SIRE
THE story of The Replacements, particularly the Minneapolis-based quartet’s early days as self-sabotaging punkcum-power pop scamps, will always be marked by their collective Jekyll and Hyde personality. Their breakthrough album, 1984’s Let It Be, featured the blinding brilliance of “Answering Machine” and the jangly “I Will Dare” alongside tossed-off silliness like “Gary’s Got A Boner” and “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out”. When the ’Mats arrived in New York City riding a wave of critical attention for that record, they played a not-so-secret showcase for major-label reps at CBGB (billed as Gary & the Boners, natch) that was, by all accounts, a drunken trainwreck of half-assed covers and even worse renditions of their originals. A few nights later, the group stormed the stage of Irving Plaza “playing what almost everyone judged to be one of the best shows of their career”, writes Bob Mehr in the liner notes for Tim (Let It Bleed Edition), an expanded reissue of the fourth studio album that features a remixed version of the LP, a wealth of studio outtakes, and a scorching live recording from the era.