Tim Brough's Black Leather Bookshelf

Songs one through five chronicle that period, but when you get to song six, "I Will Dare," something happens. Westerberg starts learning to write anthems. From that point on, The Replacements began cutting classic albums of whiskey drenched rock and roll, comparable to The Who or The Faces. By the time The 'Mats recorded "Tim" (and album dear to me if only for the title), Westerberg had made a huge leap forward in songwriting. "Here Comes A Regular" is an acoustic bluesy tale of small town barflies and alienation that he would not have been able to come up with before, yet the rave-up "Kiss Me On The Bus" counters it with pure rock enthusiasm.

The explosive and abusive lifestyle couldn't hold together forever, and Bob Stinson was out by "Pleased to Meet Me." They soon decided they would have to leave the days of falling-down-drunk stage shows behind, and cleaned up for "Don't Tell A Soul." It shows in that this was the slickest Replacements album to date and actually produced a near hit single in "I'll Be You." It also shows the signs of strain, only "Achin' To Be," another of Westerberg's fragile ballads, is worth repeated listens. By "All Shook Down" (rumored to initially be a Westerberg solo album) the band is reduced to being sidemen, with Chris Mars getting out before the supporting tour. While only "Merry Go Round" made the cut for this best of, Paul's duet with Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano on "My Little Problem" should have qualified.

There are two solid new songs here, "Pool and Dive" and "Message To The Boys." But they're inconsequential. You're really here for stuff like "Can't Hardly Wait" or the college anthem "Left of The Dial" (which eventually became the title to a Rhino 80's alternative tunes box set). MIA are the songs "Androgynous" and "Beer For Breakfast," but this does an excellent job of overview.

PS. In a weird irony, as I was listening to this in my car on 3/17, I was singing along heartily to "Alex Chilton." Little did I know he was passing away. RIP to a rock icon and a prince of power pop.