Replacements - Original Album Series

One quick question: wouldn't it require a separate remaster from the 2007 Rhino to make another transfer to CD with the 2007 bonus tracks omitted? Or can the 2007 mastering be transferred to a new CD with just the original tracks?

 

Couldn't disagree more.The original CDs released in the 80s castrated Tommy's bass extension.The remasters also have more depth and resolution than the original CDs.

 

Despite the aforementioned errors, I prefer the 2007/2008 (not sure the year) Replacements remasters to earlier editions.

 

Huge improvement over the original CDs.Louder is not always better but in the case of The Replacements it is...

 

Would love to see an AF remaster of Let It Be,Tim,or Pleased To Meet Me

 

I think there's too much compression on AFN/NFA. The 2007 remasters also have some compression, but it's much more judiciously used.

Me too, but I think it's fair to say there's no chance in hell of that ever happening. Aside from the Mats' relative obscurity, I think Audio Fidelity has a strict policy against remastering anything recorded after 1980.

 

I'm hardly an expert, but I don't see why they couldn't just use the 2007 remasters. Once everything's in the digital domain, you can just take what you want and discard the rest, I would think.

 

The errors aren't too noticeable if you're not attuned to them, which is good. Personally, I think the EQ is a bit on the bright side on the reissues, but they're not loud, that's for sure. Well worth investing in and if you agree about the EQ, that's what tone controls are for.

 

I didn't even know about the errors until I read about them here! The EQ I have no problem with.

 

Has anyone confirmed that the Original Album Series box is in fact the remasters from 2007??

 

I don't stick up for remasters very often or at all, but have to agree with you Tom. doing a a/b last night of Tim the old US Sire I prefer the the remaster
Think I'm going to track down the vinyl remasters

 

FWIW, I never liked the EQ on AFN/NFA, it sounds too etched. Just compare the stuff on NFA that overlaps with the bonus tracks on the Rhino reissues, you have to tone it down on top to match the Rhino CD's, which sound more pleasing.

 

That's what the remote is for

 

Or what the original LPs are for.

 

I judge bonus tracks on a case-by-case basis.

Let It Be? Prefer it without.

But Tim? It's great to have because "Nowhere Is My Home" and "Can't Hardly Wait" (and I'm going to cheat a bit - the version that's on Disc 2, Track 1 of AFN/NFA is the definitive version) are two of their best tracks, and they SHOULD have been on the album in place of "Dose of Thunder" and "Lay It Down Clown" - that album would've been a stone-cold masterpiece and probably would've topped the P&J poll of that year instead of settling for #2 to Little Creatures.

Pleased To Meet Me? I like checking out the alternate mixes/versions that aren't so glossy. And "P.O. Box (Photo)" is fantastic, it's just too bad it's a studio demo. It should've been finished and put on the album. "Birthday Gal" (and again, the version on AFN/NFA is definitive) should've been on the album too, probably would swap that out with "Can't Hardly Wait" if I'm going to pretend Tim was able to include it.

Don't Tell A Soul? "We Know the Night," "Wake Up" and "Portland" ALL should have been on that album in place of its three weakest turds. Even "Date to Church" would've been better than one of the album's weaker cuts. And the alternate mix of "We'll Inherit The Earth" is way better than the album mix - a little rough but the album mix is glossy as hell, just terrible.

 

I'd agree with you, except that version is missing the solo. They left a nice big empty spot for it in the middle of the song, but apparently Bob never got around to overdubbing it.

The Petersson-style 8-string bass on that track is great. You neglected to mention the demo/rehearsal take of "Talent Show" on which Chris Mars is allowed to play drums like Chris Mars rather than a machine. On the whole, I find the bonus tracks for DTAS to be a better Replacements album than the actual album is.

 

I don't particularly like "Dose of Thunder" and "Lay It Down Clown," but they're part of the album I grew up with, and that's how I listen to it today. I'm especially not gonna put "Can't Hardly Wait" on Tim when they put it on Pleased To Meet Me.

 

Yeah, but I can't stand that version now. The horns and especially the strings…I wasn't surprised to hear that Westerberg left the studio when they put those on because he didn't want to hear them desecrate his song.

 

Just not my reaction to the horns and strings, but, hey, Don't Tell A Soul is right up there with Let It Be as my favorite thing they ever did. I care more about the songs on any particular record than about whether the production values on Track X meant that they had sold out.

 

It's tempting to slot in the demo version of "Talent Show," but it still sounds too much like a rough demo. I kind of miss that coda too - if they had slotted "Portland" as the last track, it would've given the album a nice symmetry to have that same coda more or less repeated at both ends. But I agree, Mars sounds like he was chained down for most of DTAS, so I do miss having that in general.

 

When Westerberg played it on SNL, he struck a good balance, using the horn section and keeping the silent breaks, but still driving the whole song with some grungy guitar. I kind of wish they went that route if they wanted to add horns. I just love the Tim version though, it's got real blood and guts and I love the original lyrics. (To be fair, the new words that open the Pleased To Meet Me version are hilarious too.)

 

I mean, Tim was a big smoothing-down of their rough edges in its own right. "Lay It Down Clown" may have been a bone thrown to Bob and his vision of rock and roll, but it's not exactly ramshackle and about to fall apart in the same way that "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out' and "Gary's Got a Boner" were. You watch that Replacements doc that came out a few years back, and there's some indie-er than thou dude complaining that Let It Be wasn't as spontaneous as Hootenany, or that he stopped listening after Let It Be. Give me a break.

 

"Nowhere Is My Home" might be the greatest Replacements song of all.

 

If you haven't heard "Gudbuy T 'Jane", you need to.

 

Yeah, Let It Be's less serious stuff was far better. I actually don't mind the 'Mats choosing to go softer - I don't think that's selling out or getting boring - but for "Can't Hardly Wait," the original version is just tremendous, I just really prefer it.

I think "Birthday Gal" is great and should have been on Pleased to Meet Me - the only problem with going further down that direction was the songs, and the well was pretty dry by the time they hit All Shook Down. Still, "Sadly Beautiful" and "Nobody" are great. I'm not a huge fan of DTAS, but again, "We Know the Night" and "Portland," those totally should've been left on and I think they're great examples of the kind of 'softer' material that would've worked.