I came to the Replacements late, pretty much as they were breaking up. The first Replacements record I bought was a bargain-bin copy of Don’t Tell a Soul. A lot of Replacements fans hate that record, but it’s always held a soft spot for me. In my mind, it’s tied to a fairly sad, psychotic relationship, which means I’ll probably never hear it with any objectivity. Even so, I’ll go to my grave insisting that it holds some good songs.

From there, it was easy — and fun — to travel backwards through the band’s catalog. A fun ride, but one that skewed my perception of the band a little bit. Starting off with the more polished songwriting of 1985’s Tim or 1987’s Pleased to Meet Me, it can be a little jarring to crash up against an album like 1982’s Stink, which approached songs over the two-minute mark like they represented In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida-type excess.  Listening to the Replacements in somewhat backwards order was like travelling back through time, only with no annoying warnings that massive beer consumption could wreck the space-time continuum.

You won’t find me mythologizing the band, however, despite the fact that I agree with pretty much any praise that’s been heaped upon them. I wasn’t there at the right time. The band was dissolving in a cloud of passive aggressive Paul Westerberg interviews by the time I discovered them. Plus, I grew up in Anderson, SC, which was served by a classic rock station and that was pretty much it. In my day, we got only six Pink Floyd songs, and we liked it!  It wasn’t until I went off to college that I learned of faraway, storied lands like Minneapolis.

If you’ve heard the band, you probably don’t need to be convinced, and you were probably also aware that April 22 marked the beginning of a Replacements revival. The band’s first four discs on Twin/Tone were reissued, chock full o’ Rhino Records goodness: detailed liner notes, improved sound (thankfully not too clean), and bonus cuts. There are several good outtakes and b-sides to be found, such as the self-deprecating pick-up of “If Only You Were Lonely”, a blistering take on T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy”, and Westerberg’s first attempt to bring a little sensitivity to the band, “You’re Getting Married.”  There aren’t any previously unknown tracks of genius, but everything’s solid, and fun to listen to.

Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash and Stink still sound like the band adopted a scorched-earth policy to the recording process, while Hootenanny takes a kitchen-sink approach to everything the band could do, even if it’s not all golden. Let It Be, however, deserves its place at the top of the Replacements mountain. A great blend of the heartfelt (”Answering Machine”, “Sixteen Blue”, “Androgynous”, “Unsatisfied”) and the raucous (their cover of KISS’s “Black Diamond” practically defines hanging on by your fingertips).

I remember thinking that when R.E.M.’s greatest hits collection came out a year or two ago, that it was like a fountain of youth: it just energized you. Listening to these ‘Mats reissues has the same effect. —Andrew Gilstrap

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