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Let It Be

The Replacements - Let It Be Audio CD

A fair review of the The Replacements "Let It Be" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Replacements reviews here, or go back to the The Replacements tabs.

Band: The Replacements
Title: Let It Be
Rating:

Release Date: 1991-07-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: I Will Dare 2: Favorite Thing 3: We're Comin' Out 4: Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out 5: Androgynous 6: Black Diamond 7: Unsatisfied 8: Seen Your Video 9: Gary's Got a Boner 10: Sixteen Blue 11: Answering Machine

Should be SIX stars out of 5!

Wow. On "Let It Be" the Replacements found the PERFECT balance between angry, disillusioned young punks and not-quite-grown-up-but-nevertheless-very-mature-and-insightful songs about "adult", serious topics like lonliness and love.
As good today as it was 25 years ago.
Nevermind "top 500," this should be in the Top 50 rock albums of ALL time. If you don't own it, you are lame.

Okay, I get it now...
But I kept hearing how they were one of the best bands of the 80s so I thought maybe I was missing something, and I was. Back around 2006 I had just heard of The Replacements and thought I would check them out, but honestly didn't like them at all. I had liked that song "Can't Hardly Wait" but didn't get it any of the rest of it at all.

When I first heard Let It Be I showed it to a friend and he thought it was pure garbage, at the time I agreed with him. Fast forward to 2008 when I heard "Don't Ask Why" on Sorry Ma and began doubting my original judgment. I bought The Replacements biography "All Over But The Shouting" which was great, bought Stink, Hootenanny, Tim but still hadn't listened to Let It Be for a few years. Which brings me to today.

This album is amazing and you have to get it. Here is music as aggressive as any song on Sorry Ma ("We're Coming Out", "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out"), a Kiss song ("Black Diamond"), a classic ("Answering Machine"), and brilliant quieter songs ("Sixteen Blue", "Androgynous", "Unsatisfied"). Before I said that Sorry Ma deserved 11/10 and Let It Be only deserved 3/10, now I realize how ridiculous that was. This is without a doubt one of the greatest 80s albums, a 12/10. I get it now, and you should too.

Let It Be

But back to the album. The Replacements-Let It Be *****

The first time I listened to Let It Be by The Replacements the first thing that ran through my mind was "Kurt Cobain is the biggest fraud I have ever heard in my life!" Now every time I hear Cobain all I can think is that he was just ripping off Paul Westerberg. This was my first introduction to The Replacements. It came along at the perfect time. I was seventeen when I first heard it and I really felt a connection with everyone of the songs, which I am sure is what a lot of people say. I now own all the bands albums. From `I Will Dare' which features a guest spot from the great Peter Buck from R. E. M. through `Favorite Thing' which is easily one of the greatest punk songs of all time as well as just one of the greatest songs of any genre. The angst of `We're Coming Out' which boasts the classic lines "One more chance to get it all wrong," to the humor of `Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out' something the band was known for. I assume the song is about bassist Tommy Stinson having his tonsils removed, being as he was only about seventeen or so when this album was released. `Androgynous' is pure Westerberg, pure poetry with a slice of humor thrown in for good measure. `Black Diamond' which seems like the most obscure of covers for a band like The Replacements being as it is a Kiss song, but for those who know anything about the band realize it fits perfectly, and in fact The Replacements do it much better then the original. `Unsatisfied' more or less describes Westerberg's permanent state of mind. `Seen Your Video' really is a song that everyone can relate to when bands they love become to big for their original fan base. `Gary's Got A Boner' is pure punk. Great lead guitar work from the great Bob Stinson, and excellent drumming from Christopher Mars. Great fun. `Sixteen Blue' is more or less Sixteen Candles put to music, and really a song everyone in their mid-teens should be required to here. `Answering Machine' ends the album with perhaps the indie anthem to end all indie anthems. It may be the most tortured love song of all time, and ends the album like no song ends any other album.

Let It Be is one of those albums that should be in everyone's music collection. It is easily one of the greatest and most important albums of all time and should be required listening, even over such albums as Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.

College kid music
It appeals to a college kid who thinks every random emotion is worth writing about. I used to love this album when I was a kid in college in the late 1980's. Teen/early 20's angst. Listening to this music 20 years later makes me realize that different music appeals to people at different points in life. Would anyone with a typical adult life (kids, marriage, job) still like this? Curious. Flat, shallow and silly.

Not a classic but still very good
The band was showing hints of this on their previous album, Hootenanny, which had a couple of melodic gems in "Color Me Impressed" and "Within Your Reach" among the messy and loose punk rockers. Let It Be shows the Replacements' transformation from a sloppy punk band to a great rock and roll band. And while, this is Paul Westerberg's coming out party as a mature songwriter (no pun intended), a few of the punk tunes are very good as well. "I Will Dare" is one of their best songs, combining a catchy bass line with a jangly guitar line ala the Byrds while the ragged "Favorite Thing" and the raging "We're Coming Out" are pretty good also. However, the album's calling card are most of the Westerberg tunes as "Unsatisfied", "Answering Machine", and "Sixteen Blue" are melodic `80s alternative rock at its best. Other strong cuts include the humorous piano ballad "Androgynous" and a spirited cover of Kiss' classic "Black Diamond. " The remaining tracks include "Seen Your Video" which starts out hot before the lyrics drag the tune down and "Gary's Got A B***r" and "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out", which are sophomoric tunes reminiscent of their earlier work. However, the highs greatly outnumber the lows on Let It Be and the band would take it up another notch on their next album, Tim. .

You can see a complete list of all The Replacements discography, or go back to the The Replacements tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.