2nd October - The Replacements' Let It Be

Artist – Album: The Replacements – Let It Be

Released:  2^nd October 1984

Sounds Like: The Breakfast Club if Beavis and Butthead had writing credits

It’s a little surprising just how many more coming-of-age films there are than albums. Top of my head: Stand by Me, The Breakfast Club, Billy Elliott, Rebel Without a Cause, Kes, The 400 Blows, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Gregory’s Girl are all excellent candidates in the film corner; I’m struggling to think of even one for music. There are plenty of album reviews that contain the phrase of course, but these refer to a new maturity in the band themselves, in their musical or lyrical or songwriting ability, and not a record that is actually about the progression into adulthood. Therefore I’m going to say – bold as brass and with little fear of contradiction – that Let It Be is the greatest coming-of-age album of all time.

The album starts with ‘I Will Dare’ and ‘Favorite Thing’, two swaggering anthems, one indie and one rock and roll, that brilliantly capture the overwhelming intensity of young love. Teenage issues both specific (‘Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out’ and ‘Gary’s Got a Boner’) and general (‘Unsatisfied’) are covered, with the sharp eye for detail of someone who is not too far removed from their teenage years to remember the angst but is old enough to play and poke fun at it when needed. ‘Sixteen Blue’ is one of the undoubted highlights, with the empathetic “your age is the hardest age” and it’s comforting, everybody’s-been-there lyrics.

Of course, the album did also mark a maturing of the band’s sound, as they developed from the loose punk rockers of earlier albums (and best shown here with the headbanger ‘We’re Comin’ Out’), to a much more eclectic base. There was a nod to glam metal with their cover of Kiss’ ‘Black Diamond’, quirky piano pop on ‘Androgynous’ and stunning indie-rock on ‘Unsatisfied’, ‘Sixteen Blue’ and ‘Answering Machine’. ‘I Will Dare’ featured the jangling guitars R.E.M’s Peter Buck, and, as lead singer Paul Westerberg once noted, also served as an apt motto for the group: “We'll dare to flop [. . .] We'll dare to do anything."

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1.       I Will Dare – 3:18

2.       Favorite Thing – 2:19

3.       We’re Comin’ Out – 2:21

4.       Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out – 1:53

5.       Androgynous – 3:11

6.       Black Diamond – 2:40

7.       Unsatisfied – 4:01

8.       Seen Your Video – 3:08

9.       Gary’s Got a Boner – 2:28

10.   Sixteen Blue – 4:24

11.   Answering Machine – 3:40

Listen to ‘Unsatisfied’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BUeO5YGF2Q

Also released on 2^nd October:

1995: Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory

Also released on 2^nd October:

2000: Radiohead – Kid A

Also released on 2^nd October:

2007: MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

6th May - The Beatles' Let It Be

Artist – Album: The Beatles – Let It Be

Released:  6^th May 1970

Sounds Like: Fab

How – how – have I got to May and not yet done a Beatles album? (Well, apart from the fact that all of their best loved albums were released in June or later...). And, why would the first Beatles album I do get round to be Let It Be, arguably the most controversial of all of their recordings?

In truth I don’t really understand the negativity surrounding this record. Sure, it may not be their very best, and considering they were on a run of at least one masterpiece album per year – 1965: Rubber Soul, 1966: Revolver, 1967: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1968: The Beatles, 1969: Abbey Road (honestly, can you imagine any group managing a sequence like that) – you can see why their 1970 offering was something of a disappointment. But by any other standards it’s great.

Opener ‘Two of Us’ has a sweet harmony between Lennon and McCartney but, knowing the real tensions between the two at the time, it’s impossible to not find it forced and fascinating. ‘Dig a Pony’ is a standard blues rocker, no more, but ‘Across the Universe’ is probably the coolest track the group ever laid down. Phenomenal psychedelic lyrics – “words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup” – permeate the fab four’s most cosmic arrangement. ‘I Me Mine’ has understated beauty, like most of George Harrison’s contributions, but two of the next three songs are poor. They’re also less than a minute long each though, so that hardly matters, and sandwiched between is ‘Let It Be’, McCartney’s tour de force hymn, and a song that is so much better than I can be bothered to describe. The second half of the album does waiver slightly, but with ‘The Long and Winding Road’ (yes, it’s overproduced, but it’s still fantastic) and the rocking ‘Get Back’ in tow, it’s still considerably above average.

Underrated and understated genius.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Two of Us – 3:37

2.       Dig a Pony – 3:55

3.       Across the Universe – 3:48

4.       I Me Mine – 2:26

5.       Dig It – 0:50

6.       Let It Be – 4:03

7.       Maggie Mae – 0:40

8.       I’ve Got a Feeling – 3:38

9.       One After 909 – 2:54

10.   The Long and Winding Road – 3:38

11.   For You Blue – 2:32

12.   Get Back – 3:09

Listen to ‘Across the Universe’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN9n1bAahg4