539.The Replacements - Let It Be (1984)
















Track Listing

1. I Will Dare
2. Favorite Thing
3. We're Comin' Out
4. Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out
5. Androgynous
6. Black Diamond
7. Unsatisfied
8. Seen Your Video
9. Gary's Got a Boner
10. Sixteen Blue
11. Answering Machine

Review

The Replacements give us a very interesting album, it's a bit R.E.M., a bit Black Flag and a bit of a couple of other things. Sometimes in different songs and sometimes all in the same song.

This makes for what is a pretty schizo album, maybe it is a bit too eclectic for its own good, the day when you feel like listening to Androgynous is probably not the same day you feel like listening to Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out. Still all the tracks are good enough in their own style to make this a more than worthy album.

The first track is definitely a highlight here, and that song by itself makes the album be worthy of inclusion on this list. This is very much one of the daddies of College Rock and it stands up remarkably well today, a very good album and something I will surely listen to again.

Track Highlights

1. I Will Dare
2. Seen Your Video
3. Answering Machine
4. Androgynous

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Let It Be placed more of a focus on Westerberg's songwriting than previous albums. While elements of hardcore remain, the band's sound also incorporates arena rock, pop, jazz, heavy metal, honky-tonk country and Chicago blues. Unlike previous efforts, the individual songs have distinct sections and dynamic shifts. Instruments such as piano, lap steel guitar, 12-string guitar, and mandolin appear.
Audio samples of 'Let It Be'

The album is divided by more energetic rock songs like "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" and "Gary's Got a Boner" and more dramatic songs like "Sixteen Blue" and "Unsatisfied". R.E.M.'s Peter Buck contributed the guitar solo to Let It Be's first cut, "I Will Dare," which was released as a single prior to the album's release in July 1984.

I Will Dare Live: