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Let It Be | 
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| Artist: The Replacements
Label: Rhino / Rykodisc
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $14.99
You Save: $3.99 (21%)
New (44) Used (8) Collectible (1) from $9.79
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 3425
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 438844
UPC: 081227993658
EAN: 0081227993658
ASIN: B0014IH1OK
Release Date: April 22, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | I Will Dare | | • | Favorite Thing | | • | We're Comin' Out | | • | Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out | | • | Androgynous | | • | Black Diamond - The Replacements, Stanley, Paul | | • | Unsatisfied | | • | Seen Your Video | | • | Gary's Got a Boner | | • | Sixteen Blue | | • | Answering Machine | | • | 20th Century Boy - The Replacements, Bolan, Marc | | • | Perfectly Lethal | | • | Temptation Eyes - The Replacements, Price, Harvey | | • | Answering Machine | | • | Heartbeat -- It's a Lovebeat - The Replacements, Kennedy, Michael | | • | Sixteen Blue |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Kids today don't have a band like this... October 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Truly one of the greatest American rock bands of the 1980s, the Replacements spent much of their career just under the radar of the consciousness of the mainstream. While the band built up a loyal following throughout the Reagan years, the 'Mats never broke through the way other college favorites like REM or The Red Hot Chili Peppers did. While the band offered some of the best music of the decade and while they were later signed to a major label and even appeared on Saturday Night Live, true recognition and praise eluded them in their day. But while the band never managed to enjoy a real cross-over hit with the mainstream, they remained a cult favorite throughout their existence.
The `Mats early albums boasted raucous punk that was authentic and memorable, but a far cry away from the best work the band would offer. While the Minneapolis quartet's first three releases "Sorry Ma, I forgot to take out the Trash," (1981) "Stink" EP (1982) and "Hootenanny" (1983) showed much promise, it was the band's fourth album "Let it Be," (1984) that saw the band reach their full potential. The Replacements "Holy Trinity" of albums, "Let it Be," "Tim," (1985) and "Pleased to Meet Me" (1987) saw singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg blossom as a writer, churning out his most memorable work.
While "Let it Be" has the punk aesthetics of its predecessors, the songs are more refined and crafted. While "Let it Be" isn't overtly commercial or has any singles that scream "HIT" written on them, the album was up to this point the band's most assessable offering. To get right to the point, "Let it Be" is just a great album. Track after track, each song is memorable and well structured with an infectious hook, killer groove and keen sense of melody. Westerberg, Bob Stinson, (guitar) Tommy Stinson, (bass) and Chris Mars (drums) struck the perfect balance between finely crafted songs and anarchic, unrestrictive punk. The band is loose and hungry, but also meticulous, making sure the album is raw and organic, but without sounding sloppy.
With "Let it Be" Westerberg really honed in as a lyricist. Songs of alienation, dissatisfaction, frustration, and problems with interpersonal relationships are the prevailing themes. And while these are the prevailing themes with many, many bands, Westerberg sounds authentic and the listener can really sympathize with his plight. While he sounds genuinely distraught, he never indulges in self-pity or drains the listener. There is nothing forced or contrived about the feelings he is trying to convey. All the while Westerberg has a real sense of humor as songs like "Tommy gets his Tonsils Out" and "Gary's got a Boner" would suggest.
The opening mid-tempo "I Will Dare" is probably the album's best song, if not the greatest Replacements track ever recorded. Estrangement and unrequited love but with a sense of hope seem to be the prevailing theme. Tommy Stinson's sparse bass over the lush playing of Westerberg, Bob Stinson, and guest guitarist Peter Buck (of REM) make this song a triumph. "Favorite Thing" goes at an almost manic pace and has a real sense of urgency, as Westerberg tells of his affection for the one he loves. "Were Coming Out" may have been a contender for "Hootenanny" as this punk-rocker is somewhat chaotic, but without loosing structure. The light piano offers a nice touch. "Tommy gets his tonsils out" is also reminiscent of the Replacements early work, as this humorous punk number tackles the bassists' fear of going to the dentist. The album takes a complete left turn for the bizarre "Androgynous," a melancholy piano balled dealing with the issue of sexual identity and self-acceptance. A cover of KISS's "Black Diamond" stays pretty true to the original, while giving it a bit of a punk-make-over. Perhaps the most earnest song on the album "Unsatisfied" articulates the frustration one feels with the emptiness of an unfulfilled life. A poke at MTV, the mostly instrumental "Seen Your Video" shows the band cut loose and just rock out. Bob Stinson shows his fee-wheeling skills over this catchy little ditty. The humorous "Gary's Got a Boner" is somewhat like "Tommy gets his tonsils out" and is somewhat reminiscent of Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever." A morose plight detailing teenage angst, "Sixteen Blue" is gentle and bittersweet, yet rough-around-the-edges. The almost exclusively guitar closing track "Answering Machine," while very sparse and stripped down, is quite effective. The song's theme, longing frustration, sums up the premise of the album in a nutshell and makes for the perfect closing number.
Released over twenty years ago, "Let it Be" has aged quite well. It sounds as good and as poignant today as it did in 1984. The themes of "Let it Be" are timeless. As long as there are humans on the Earth, people will long for companionship and meaning and be unhappy with their life. Bands like Green Day, the Offspring, and countless others owe a lot to the Replacements.
2008 Bonus reissue comments:
While I was a little bit peeved that this edition has all the cool bonus stuff when I just bought a remastered version of the album from the early 00s--it's not really a big deal. While the bonus material (covers and outtakes) doesn't quite stand up to the material on the original album, it's still quite strong and will definitely be of interest to fans. T Rex's "20th Century Boy" in particular is cool and a demo of "16 Blue" will give the listener a sense of how the album progressed.
one of the greatest 80's indies albums October 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Let it Be is a landmark album, one of the greatest indie albums of the 80's. One of the greatest albums ever, really! It caught the band at a perfect intersection of their early wildness and Paul Westerberg's increasing greatness as a songwriter. Every song is different, every song is cool, and it fits together perfectly (maybe the best sequenced album ever!) What can you say about an album that contains "I Will Dare" "Unsatisfied" "16 Blue" "Answering Machine" "We're Coming Out" "Androgynous" AND "Favorite Thing"??? The "minor" songs like "Seen Your Video" or "Tommy Gets His Tonsils" out would be standouts on any other band's albums (and they are often hilarious as well!). Also, the remaster just sounds great. Plus you get some cool bonus tracks to boot. What, the packaging isn't perfect and the bonus tracks could have been even better? Fine, but seeing as this album is already a 6 on a 5-1 scale, I can hardly give it less than 5 stars just because they haven't managed to turn it into a 7.
 Better than average 80's college radio rock June 30, 2008
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
At least the whole record doesn't sound like REM. I've just listened to this record for the first time in many years and I'm glad I didn't buy it (borrowed a friends copy). A lot of this music does not hold up for me at all. Songs like "Androgynous" and "Unsatisfied" were never my favorites but I find them completely unlistenable now. Westerberg seems to be trying WAAAYY to hard to be Springsteen or Petty. Those guys are bad enough (especially in the 80's), who would ever want to imitate them?
Back in 1984/85, you would put on a Replacments record to try and please everyone. The girls would talk about how "amaaazing" Paul is, the lame guys from the college radio station would talk about the "quality of the songs" and it would sort of rock enough to please the hardcore crew. Ultimately, I don't think anyone really liked these guys enough to get too excited one way or the other.
Anyways, if you're on this page chances are you have your own opinion and it's totally different than mine. If you've never heard this record, check it out. I prefer Sorry Ma and Stink and don't like anything after this one (you need a college degree to be cool enough to like them). But don't say I didn't warn you if you think it doesn't live up to the hype!
Check out Mighty High...In Drug City. You'll probably hate it, too!
 The material demands a better reissue. Period. June 3, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
I've been a fan of this band for a long time, so I was understandably looking forward to proper reissues/remasters for at least ten years. Let It Be may be their best sounding disk and most representative of the band's sound. However, aside from unearthed photos - which are poorly placed inside (with text on the photos?!?) - and better sound than earlier issues on compact disc this reissue simply isn't up to snuff.
And Rhino/Ryko are not to blame either. The band has acquired a certain legacy over time and simply deserves much better. First off the bonus track selection is very half-baked. Fans of the band are familiar with their outtakes by now. Let It Be's include "Who's Gonna Take Us Alive" (the best outtake of the bunch stupidly absent), the lyrically alternate version of "Gary's Got A Boner", "Street Girl" (a fine little ditty), the rocking "You Look Like An Adult" (the original version of "Seen Your Video") and a big whoops was the (new) mix of the alternate version of "Sixteen Blue". The same version (did) include Chan Polling of The Suburbs' grand piano through the entire song. A truly beautiful version, and they botched it! Why they included the same version WITHOUT the best part - or at very least a new interesting feature - of the song is simply poor on all counts.
Gina Arnold (author of the pretty decent 'Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana') wrote the liner notes. While sure, it may be sweet and cute for her to recount what it was like to be a Replacements fan twenty years ago (if that's the case for a filling up liner notes why don't a segment of us Replacements fans start sending in our of sweet stories for Tim now?) it doesn't make for definitive liner-notes writing. We still know as much about the album and there's nothing legitimate about why is it's included here in the first place. It has it's place - but not in the liner notes to one of the best albums the 1980's.
Why there was no input from any band member is certainly unfortunate and perhaps even telling. No first hand stories, memories, information of any kind from the band (aside from their ex-manager informing us that the bonus tracks...were outtakes...from the Let It Be sessions). Considering that these reissues have been in the works - or more accurately been touted as "to be released next year" for the past ten years or so - by the time they actually arrive and they don't have the bonus tracks that the fans would hope they'd include or simply expect, it's hard not to wonder what DID in fact take so long? Surely it wasn't the attention to detail. Having said ALL this, it should please a percentage of fans. I'm going to assume that casual fans (do the 'Mats even have casual fans?) of the band should be fine with this reissue.
It's issues (or reissues as it were) like this that prompt illegal trade of this great bands' music and that's not fair to the band or it's fans.
Oh yeah, and the classic iconic cover is now a few shades darker and cropped to boot!
 Agree with Bill Wikstrom's review and... June 2, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
"I Will Dare", "Unsatisfied" and "Answering Machine" have ALL BEEN EDITED!!!
Small, but significant edits have been made to the tracks. Which changes the identity of the track(s) and the album. "Answering Machine" the beginning has been chopped off. No more Paul count off over buzzing guitar. No more back round fumbling before the start of "I Will Dare", in turn the track sounds more confident (for a lack of a better word). The backround after "Androgynous" are not only edited but also now bleed over onto the front (beginning) of "Black Diamond". Which sounds like a careless post-production boo-boo. But being intimately familiar with this album, it now sounds like it's someone else's album.
For something so well-established, it just seems pretty foolish for a revisionist history lesson as far as ANY editing of the original album tracks.
Glaring omissions aside ("Who's Gonna Take Us Alive", "Street Girl", "Sixteen Blue" - without Chan Polling's piano on the entire track (!!) which also had a very nice guitar feedback ending courtesy of Bob - now gone (as if it was never even there). And simply uninteresting, very uninforming and self-indulgent liner notes. The purchase is fine for the photos (with staples in the middle of frames) and beefier sound. Otherwise, it's just a bad re-issue which is unfortunate as it's been in the works (the idea of a reissue at very least) for a while now.
Will there be a box set forthcoming for all of the ommisions?
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