Don’t buy this unless you want to. Really want to.

Ask yourself if you really need to hear three different versions of 11 Replacement songs.

I was sucked in by collectorist/completist instinct, three CDs and a vinyl album all devoted to a single album.  Roughly, it’s 2020 remasters of the original album, plus an album each of demos and rough mixes, overlaps but differences.

I did a comparison between the 2020 remasters and the original CD release from 1987.

The remastered versions unsurprisingly have more treble and bass than the originals, but honestly, who gives a fuck?  A song like “Alex Chilton” would be great it were played by your granny on bongos.

The vinyl (which sucked me in) is a complete waste of time.  It’s just a duplicate of the “Rough Mixes” on the third CD, but its greater crime is that the pressing is terrible.  I prefer the sound of vinyl, excellent when properly pressed, to CD.  This is just awful.

Perhaps I’m being unkind.  The “Rough Mixes” are in some cases very different to the released versions, and a lot of fun.  Some of the outtakes and alternatives are very good, sometimes revealing of the ‘Mats roots.  The 20-page booklet is excellent, lots of detail about the band, the recording sessions, etc.  (Repeating myself: it’s excellent).

I have repeated this anecdote ad nauseum, but here you go again:  One of the funniest things ever, not headliners The Replacements at First Avenue, but the band who preceded them at 7th Street Entry.


Feel like a hundred bucks, in love with that song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftTOEJfzdq0

-R