CD Reviews

The Replacements: Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out the Trash;

Plus, Stink; Hootenanny; Let It Be (Deluxe Editions) | Rhino/Rykodisc

By DAVID BOFFA | April 29, 2008

4.0 Stars

The Replacements have a well-chronicled history of sabotaging their own rock stardom. When the Minneapolis-based proto-alt-rockers weren’t deliberately scaring off major label representatives with reckless performances, they were finding more clever ways to depreciate themselves. (See The Replacements Stink EP.) So leave it to the ’Mats to cut some truly great material from their albums. Included among the 30 studio outtakes, rarities, and demos spread over these four Twin/Tone reissues: on Sorry Ma, the original demo tape given to Twin/Tone co-founder Peter Jesperson (who after one listen remarked, “I thought my head was going to explode”); on the hardcore-punk-tinged Stink, a speed-punk rendition of the ’50s Bill Haley hit “Rock Around the Clock”; and on Hootenanny’s “Bad Worker,” frontman Paul Westerberg reflecting on his pre-’Mats days as a janitor. But it’s the Let It Be extras that shine. “Perfectly Lethal,” an outtake that could have been a college-radio hit, and a demo version of “Answering Machine,” the tale of a failed drunk dial as told to a four-track recorder (without the annoying operator voice in the background), attest to Westerberg’s knack for spinning both beautiful songwriting and drunken idiocy — in other words, what made the ’Mats so damn loveable.

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