Let It Be

by The Replacements

The beauty, and the frustration, of being a fan of The Replacements is that they couldn't get out of their way and just make one perfect album. They came close a couple of times, but that antagonistic, self-sabotaging thing they exhibited live was present even when they hit the studio, which baffles me.

This one and Tim are both right on edge of perfection; prototypical 4.5-star records. For a band with as many 5-star songs across their catalog, they just couldn't hold themselves back from throwing in a KISS cover or a dumb, goof-punk track just to fuck with people.

While I understand the inherent fun that mythology brings them, I often think about how frustrating that would have been as a fan at the time. Sure, it's cool they decided to fuck with record execs and do a bunch of covers they could only get a quarter of the way through, but what about all the people who paid ten bucks and actually loved them? After the third or fourth time of that, I imagine it got pretty old.

I feel it even now, 40 years on, listening to this album that's so perfectly crafted and genuine, only to be reminded that the band members would laugh at me for caring this much. But, in the end, who was the joke on, really?