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… More