Friday, November 20, 2020

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE REPLACEMENTS - PLEASED TO MEET ME DELUXE EDITION

 


"One foot in the door, the other foot in the gutter," sang Paul Westerberg on "I Don't Know," fully aware of his situation. In 1987, his band teetered on the edge. One little push and The Replacements might implode, as Westerberg had assumed they would in the lead-up to recording their fifth album. Or they just might score a big hit, given the interest their label Sire was showing in them, even throwing decent money at them. That lyric also spoke to the group's image, a bunch of screw-up indie punks now ensconced on a major label, taking the cash but hoping not to sell out. And as always, Westerberg and his mates were personally teetering, all booze and neuroses.

The major dilemma was the firing of lead guitar player Bob Stinson, who was acting out more than the rest of them, uninterested in growing past punk as Westerberg's writing matured. But instead of ripping them apart, the rest grew tighter, drummer Chris Mars and Stinson's brother Tommy more determined to continue. Management and Sire decided to up the ante and find a name producer, plus get them out of Minnesota They settled on Jim Dickinson who worked out of the famed Ardent Studios in Memphis, one-time cohort of The Rolling Stones, producer of Big Star, and a noted character himself.

Surprisingly, it all came together, with only some minor hiccups along the way. Without Bob Stinson in the camp, the 'Mats allowed Dickinson to add some big league tricks to their sound, with some Memphis horns and even strings getting added. While there were moments of mayhem, including "I.O.U." and "Red Red Wine," Westerberg was writing even better pop songs with great melodies, "Can't Hardly Wait" and the grand "Alex Chilton" among his very best. He even tried lounge jazz on "Nightclub Jitters" and gentle balladeering with "Skyway."

This deluxe box features three CD's, one LP and a coverful, full telling of the whole story in a lengthy booklet. Disc one features a new remaster of the album, plus the associated b-sides, most of them quite hard to find. Disc two has the original demo sessions for the album, which saw Bob Stinson show up for the first day but not for the rest, which led to his ouster. Disc three includes very different rough mixes of the sessions, before Dickinson did more cleaning and tidying, plus a bunch of outtakes, some for fun, others serious tryouts. Most of discs two and three feature never-before released stuff, great finds for fans. And in a very smart move, the album included isn't the original vinyl release, which you can get elsewhere, but rather the rough mix versions, so fans won't have vinyl duplication.

In the end, neither of the dramatic results happened. The band stayed afloat, but there was no major breakthrough either. The album did okay, wowing critics and the cult, but found few new fans. The hoped-for buzz stalled when the single "The Ledge" got rejected by MTV due to its subject, suicide. Instead, The Replacements did what they always did, and teetered forward, at least for another year. Pleased To Meet Me remains one of their best, given a thorough and loving repackaging here.

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