Beautifully Mediocre - Volume I

Beautifully Mediocre is a segment dedicated to the idea that sometimes a record that only has one or two good tracks on it deserves some credit. Let's face it, the majority of records have zero good tracks, so one or two is better than what most bands can pull off.

The Replacements
Don't Tell a Soul











2008 was a great year to be fan of the Replacements. In addition to wonderful 180 gram vinyl re-issues of the classics Tim and Pleased to Meet Me, Rhino Records re-issued the entire Replacements catalog on CD; each disc containing a good bit of unreleased bonus material. The first wave of these happened early in the year when Rhino put out all of the 'Mats Twin Tone stuff at once. This was the really exciting part for me (the bonus materials on Sorry Ma, Stink! and Let it Be are absolute must-haves), and besides picking up the aforementioned vinyl copies of Tim and PTMM, I didn't pay much attention to the reissues of the Sire releases. When I recently took a look at the bonus tracks included on these records, I noticed that Don't Tell a Soul, here and after referred to as DTAS, included a cover of my favorite Slade song. Goddamn you Rhino Records! I then realized that I had to go buy a record that I hadn't given a second thought in nearly 20 years.

1989 was the year that I first heard the Replacements; I was a freshman in high school. If only Saturday Night live wasn't such a shitty show in 1986, I probably would have jumped on the bandwagon after watching the 'Mats do "Bastards of Young" (when Paul dropped the f-bomb on live TV). Unfortunately, I gave up on that cast pretty early on in the season and didn't catch that particular episode. I saw the video for "I'll Be You" on MTV in '89, and I became a fan immediately. I picked up a copy of DTAS shortly thereafter. But not long after that, I got a hold of Let it Be and Tim and I forgot all about DTAS. Truth be told, it's a pretty forgettable album when you stack it up against the band's earlier work. It's essentially the final Replacements record. The one that followed it, All Shook Down, is a Westerberg solo record, and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. I would even listen to the argument that DTAS isn't really a 'Mats record, although I probably couldn't be swayed. After firing Bob Stinson, the band was able to keep it together for one more great record, 1987's Pleased to Meet Me, but that was it. The magic was gone. Fortunately for all involved, Paul Westerberg isn't capable of sucking, so even without the magic it's still going to be okay.

I purchased the CD yesterday afternoon, and have given it two thorough listens from start to finish, including the bonus material.

DTAS distinguishes itself from other Replacements records in a couple of ways. Unfortunately, the ways it distinguishes itself are bad ones. First, of all the 'Mats albums, it's the one with the weakest leadoff track. "Talent Show" is actually a pretty decent song, and I always enjoy hearing it. It just doesn't set a very exciting tone, particularly when you compare it to track one on PTMM, the balls-to-the-wall rocker, "IOU", or Let it Be's opener, "I Will Dare", which is my favorite song of all time.

Second of all, it's the first album the band put out that contains songs that I just don't like. I love nearly every song on every release from Sorry Ma, I Forgot to Take out the Trash up to and including Pleased to Meet Me, and the songs I don't love are still songs that I like enough to not turn off when they come on. This record contains three outright stinkers: "We'll Inherit the Earth", "Back to Back", and "Rock and Roll Ghost" are all songs that bore the shit out of me. It's no big secret that around this time Paul wanted to be a commercial success and was trying to write grown up stuff. Well, these three tracks have the stench of 'trying too hard' all over them.

Now that I'm done bashing my favorite band, it's time to give this record its due and talk about its successes. The first thing that comes to mind is "I'll Be You". This is a brilliant pop song; one that stacks up against some of the best singles the bands ever had. If Paul was trying too hard when he wrote this one, I sure can't tell. While I don't really care for "Talent Show" as a leadoff track, it's a fine song. "Achin' to Be" is yet another in a long line of very good Westerberg ballads, and "Anywhere's Better than Here" is one of the few times on this record when it sounds like the band might have actually been having fun. The real gem on this album that I had totally forgotten about after all these years is a song called "I Won't". There's nothing spectacular about this song; it's a stoopid rocker that sounds like it was written in about five minutes. But every 'Mats album has at least one stoopid rocker that sounds like it was written in about five minutes, and I find it comforting to know that this record has one of them. I think of it as a more grown up "Gary's Got a Boner".

The bonus material on the Rhino Reissue CD is what makes this worth owning. The folky "Portland" is excellent, and I think it was a mistake that it didn't make the cut when DTAS was originally released. It's another lyrical masterpiece by Westerberg, evoking imagery in a way that only he can. "Wake Up" is a really fun one that I would almost call a throwback to the Hootenany days. A more uptempo demo of "Talent Show" is included, as is another forgettable mix of "We'll Inherit the Earth". The organ-based collaboration with Tom Waits, "Date to Church", is another song that probably should have made it on the record (I've had the mp3 for quite some time; I believe it was the b-side to "I'll Be You"), and is another one of the few instances of the band sounding like it was having a good time recording this album. "We Know the Night" is worth listening to, but not spectacular, and the disc ends with a cover of the Slade classic "Gudbye t'Jane". The band rambles through this one as Paul absolutely butchers the lyrics. But it sounds great, and I'm sure Noddy Holder would approve.

DTAS is sort of like a car about to go off of a cliff. The band's days of being a groundbreaking indie rock act were over, and they were just about to find out that their run at commercial success was to be a brief one, as this album became cut-out bin fodder in record time. Don't Tell a Soul changed my life; it was my introduction to a band that I have called my favorite for nearly two decades. It's probably not going to change yours, but that doesn't mean it's not worth a listen.