The Replacements: Let It Be [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This EU pressing brings the original Twin/Tone album back to vinyl as the band first put it out. Let It Be sits at No. 156 on Rolling Stone's 2023 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

This edition

• Pressed in the EU
• Twin/Tone labels
• Stereo mix

About the album

The Replacements had spent their early years playing hardcore loud and fast, sometimes just to wind up their own audience. By 1984 Paul Westerberg wanted songs that were, in his words, a little more sincere, and Let It Be is what happened when a band of brilliant troublemakers decided to grow up, a bit.

Recorded at Blackberry Way in Minneapolis, it swings from heartfelt to riotous. "I Will Dare" is a jangly gem with a guitar solo from R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, "Unsatisfied" is a raw, howling ballad, "Androgynous" is a tender piano song years ahead of its time, and "Sixteen Blue" nails teenage confusion. In between, there's a gleeful cover of Kiss's "Black Diamond" and the hilarious "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out." Westerberg produced it with Peter Jesperson and Steve Fjelstad, keeping the sound live and scrappy.

AllMusic and Rolling Stone rank it among the defining records of the 1980s, and it remains a touchstone for alternative rock. The title belonged to another quite well-known band first, which the boys from Minneapolis seem to have regarded as a minor detail.

Also at Kops: more The Replacements on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Twin/Tone / Rhino (cat# R1 773761), a reissue of the 1984 album.