In honor of the release of the first four remastered albums from America's Favorite Slacker Band here is a quick review of the first ten randomly selected Replacements songs to come up in my iPod. Yes, I'm stealing this from the recurring Random Rules feature in the AV Club.
Election Day
We start with an outtake from the Nothing for All leftover track disc. It's a pretty good mid-tempo song with completely apolitical ("I don't care who gets elected") lyrics.
Nobody
From their last album, the exceedingly depressing All Shook Down, this is a none-too-cheerful description of an ill-considered wedding.
Kiss Me On The Bus
This suitable-for-Earth-Day ode to making out in public transportation boasts a cheerful melody and awesome couplets like "your tongue, your transfer/your hand, your answer." From Tim, quite likely the peak of the group.
Something to Dü
"Half-priced drugs/stolen guitars/What else is new?" That neatly summarizes the vibe of Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out The Trash their first album, which answers the question of how would an '80s US hardcore band sound like if fronted by a decent imitation of a late '60s Rod Stewart? Better than you would think is the answer.
No More The Moon Shines On Loreena
This is a fairly competent (given the context) live rendition of an old Carter Family tune, from what may be the funniest live album ever, When The Shit Hits The Fans. The album captures the band playing a half-empty bar in Oklahoma while completely pissed. It's forty-five minutes of half-finished covers, obscure originals and futile attempts at tuning up.
Kick Your Door Down
A loud, stupid, bratty, punkish tune from Sorry Ma. They don't all have clever lyrics.
Date to Church
Perhaps because they couldn't sound drunk enough on their own, they recruited Tom Waits to sing along on this outtake from Nothing for All. This is a nice gospel-like number that could fit in a Lyle Lovett disc.
Can't Hardly Wait
There are several versions of this song. This one is the hard-rocking one from Nothing for All, not to be confused with the more R&B version with horns and full stops featured in Pleased to Meet Me or the never-released solo-acoustic version recorded in an elevator shaft. All are great in their own way, basically because you can't screw up lines like "Jesus rides besides me/he never buys any smokes."
I Will Dare
From Let it Be, this may be close to the perfect poorly-recorded pop-rock song. "Fingernails and a cigarette's a lousy dinner" captures the slackeriffic motif, while the jangly guitars and sing-along chorus are pure joy. To add the cherry on top, REM's Peter Buck delivers a sloppy mandolin solo. One of their best.
Skyway
A gorgeous acoustic ballad from Pleased to Meet Me with an O. Henry twist ending. It's difficult reconciling that they could play lovely music like this while at the same time prompting the studio owner to ask their producer "how did they get the vomit on the ceiling?"
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