A deluxe 4-CD/1-LP of the first Replacements album, featuring 100 tracks – 67 of them previously unreleased (alternate takes, rough mixes, the band’s first demos from 1980 and so forth). There is a 12x12 hardcover book, an alternate version of the original album and a live set from January 1981. Whoa.
Emerging from the Minneapolis hardcore scene of the late 1970s – Husker Du were notable peers, both bands influencing one another – The Replacements always were a little too loose, a little too reckless to fit alongside their more straightlaced compatriots.
Plus, Paul Westerberg right from the off had a killer whiskey-soaked drawl of a voice – as evidenced by early songs such as the minimal Johnny’s Gonna Die and full-throttle Don’t Ask Why.
Replacements’ songs were in search of the next cheap thrill, the next drunken party. Closer to Dave Edmunds or Johnny Thunders than Ramones, this album bristles with a youthful energy and rash brevity that serves it well, 40 years down the line.
Songs slam-drive into other songs, few barely reaching the two-minute mark, ill-disciplined and wonderfully raucous, the brash young sound of a band still with the world at their feet.
