100 Best Albums of the Eighties

15. The Replacements, ‘Let It Be’

After three albums of endearingly loud, fast rock & roll, the Replacements took a giant step forward without surrendering their raucous edge on Let It Be. By then, leader Paul Westerberg had developed into a first-rate songwriter, capable of soul-baring introspection (“Unsatisfied”), wry character studies (“Androgynous”) and frenzied, go-for-broke rock (“We’re Coming Out”). Let It Be caught one of America’s most promising bands at an early creative peak, straddling the line between inspired amateurism and accomplished, deliberate craftsmanship.

For Westerberg, Let It Be was a break with the Replacements’ punk aesthetic. “Playing that kind of noisy, fake hardcore rock was getting us nowhere, and it wasn’t a lot of fun,” he says. “This was the first time I had songs that we arranged, rather than just banging out riffs and giving them titles.” The anthemic opening number, “I Will Dare,” was written on acoustic guitar ”” a first for Westerberg.

Constrained by what people wanted the group to be ”” the loud, sloppy and lovable Mats, as they were known to fans ”” Westerberg let his feelings out on Let It Be with songs like “Unsatisfied.” “I was not terribly happy,” admits Westerberg. “It was just the feeling that we’re never going anywhere and the music we’re playing is not the music I feel and I don’t know what to do and I don’t know how to express myself. I felt that one to the absolute bone when I did it.”

Let It Be, cut at a small Minneapolis studio, Blackberry Way, was the final album in which the Replacements’ hell-raising lead guitarist, Bob Stinson, had a key role, and blowouts like “We’re Coming Out” were written with him in mind. Stinson was present but not really accounted for on the next studio album, Tim, and was out of the band by the time Pleased to Meet Me was recorded. His younger brother, Tommy, remains the band’s bassist, and Chris Mars the drummer.

The title Let It Be, of course, came from the Beatles. Appropriating it, says Westerberg, “was our way of saying that nothing is sacred, that the Beatles were just a damn fine rock & roll band. We seriously were gonna call the next record Let It Bleed.” The songs on Let It Be were cut quickly and crudely. “We didn’t have a producer looking over our shoulder, saying, ‘This isn’t done, boys,'” Westerberg says. Yet Let It Be has a solid emotional core, and the Replacements’ evolution was fitting. “The jump from a wild punk band to one that actually plays songs and has some interesting stuff came at the right time,” says Westerberg.