Pleased to Meet Me

The ReplacementsPleased to Meet Me (Expanded)Three questions, three big opinions: 1) Best band of the 80s: Not The Smiths, R.E.M., U2 or The Cure, but The Replacements. No-brainer; 2) Best Replacements album: Tim, also the best album of the 80s and the very moment that it’s penman, Paul Westerberg, became one of the best songwriters of his generation; 3) Most buy-worthy disc from the Replacements recently reissued catalog:  Pleased to Meet Me; see below for sound reasoning and drunken sales pitch.

Yes, this reviewer is a fan of Westerberg, Chris Mars, Tommy Stinson and his brother, Bob; hopefully you are too (or will be at some point). These Gopher State rabble-rousers made the then-rare kind of rock n’ roll songs you could/can howl with friends at the bar after a long day at work or a hard year in the gutter. The question here, however, is why buy the reissue of 1987’s Pleased to Meet Me and not Tim or one of the band’s other more superior records, like, say, Hootenanny, Let It Be or maybe even All Shook Down? For starters, the original Jim Dickinson (Big Star) production sounds notably better on this Rhino-issued remaster, making for a less-dated-sounding listen (if you know anything about the initial Replacements LP-to-CD transfers, you know that this is good news).

Also, the new liner notes feature a stellar essay (always important to Rhino reissues) by former Warner Bros. exec Michael Hill, who in summary offered the following: “The album’s initial sales didn’t match the buzz. Yet for the decade more that I remained at Warner Bros., the album sold in steady increments every week, slowly but surely accruing significant numbers. With its punk bravado and plainspoken eloquence, it had succeeded on its own terms, and Pleased To Meet Me continues to attract new listeners, new believers, new fans.” The most important factor when picking what reissue(s) to splurge on, however, is usually the bonus tracks. While some of the Rhino reissues feature one or true two bits of gold (and way too many superfluous demos or alternative takes), Pleased is stock-piled, offering almost an entire album’s worth of non-album studio material that’s worth getting to know.

But first, the core album - recorded in Memphis amongst Alex Chilton and his cronies. Adding horns to many of the songs (Memphis requires horns), The Replacements sounded like a wandering outfit in 1987, dabbling slightly in a number of sub-genres, refusing to rest on their punk/pop/rock laurels. There are two key pop songs (“Alex Chilton” and the classic “Can’t Hardly Wait”), an amazing cover tune (“Skyway”), a should-be hit single (“The Ledge”), some harder rock tunes and, in general, no major wholes in the album’s short runtime. The aforementioned “Can’t Hardly Wait” sounds as good as ever in remastered form, though “The Ledge,” despite some worthwhile remixing, still sounds a little too dated for comfort. “I Don’t Know,” featuring Teenage Steve Douglas’ prominent baritone sax riffs, brings back the swagger of Hootenanny while “Nightclub Jitters” sounds exactly how you’d imagine a song named “Nightclub Jitters” to sound - slow, smoky and standup-bass-driven. “Valentine” sounds like it could’ve been on Tim and “Red Red Wine,” despite its unfortunate name, is a classic chant-along, kick-down-the-door bar band tune. As for the Replacements’ take on Big Star’s “Skyway,” well, it’s your girlfriend’s favorite song, whether she knows it or not.

Playing as a trio here (wildman Bob Stinson left the band after the release of 1986’s Tim), Mars, Westerberg and Tommy demoed four songs long before the recording of Please, all of which are included here - and three of which never made it onto Pleased. Despite being labeled as demos, all of the bonus material on the reissue sounds similar in quality to the initial tracklist, the immediate highlight being “Birthday Gal,” a tune that could’ve easily been a pre-college radio hit in 1987. “Election Day” is another standout among the 11 bonus tracks, which includes three cover tunes and three alternative versions of album tracks. Closer “Cool Water,” a b-side cover of an old Sons of the Pioneers single, sees Mars doing a fine job handling lead vocals … then it happens, the closing kiss-off. After a few second of silence we here what appears a drunken Westerberg come in with some memorable closing words: “Brains are getting in the way, boys.” Clearly, if you count yourself a fan and don’t already own the band’s killer - but rare - b-sides collection, Nothing For All, then you need this reissue. One foot in the door, the other one in the gutter.  10/10

Written by G. William Locke