The Replacements - All Shook Down

For personal reasons, this is probably my favourite Replacements album. Most fans of The ‘Mats (Replacements – Place Mats, get it?) would shudder at the thought of this, but it was the first album I heard and the album that made me fall in love with them.

For month’s I’d read and watched interviews with American rock stars citing the Replacements as an influence. Whether they were doing it for credibility or because they were being honest, it didn’t make any difference, I knew I had to hunt them down and digest them.

It was at that time when I used to spend most of my days in the old Steel Wheels at "the Green" just off Monument. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t doing skateboard stunts or trying to cop a feel of some pale Goth’s tits, I was literally milling around the basement of Steel Wheels looking for hidden treasures and bargains, before fucking off for a half warm pastie from Greggs.

At the time I thought I was a punk. I had women’s purple Wella hair dye in my shitty haircut, tartan trousers, a chain hanging off my belt and a T-shirt saying “Fuck the Future”, I looked like a right bell-end.

Anyhow, I sought out the Replacements and grabbed a hold of “All Shook Down” for £6. I picked up Husker Du’s “New Day Rising” the same day for the same price.

I felt a way I’ve never felt for a long time when I first played the album. You know that feeling you have when you’re younger, where finding new music is so exciting and you have a huge hunger to fill yourself up with new ingredients? I wondered why I’d only just discovered this band and why I hadn’t been listening to them for ages.

Unfortunately for me, it was the last studio album recorded by the band. I use the term “the band” loosely. By the time it was recorded, the band had all but disintegrated. Most of the songs are just Westerberg and session players.

Most see the album as a pre-cursor to Paul Westerberg’s solo career, in fact it was originally intended to be his first solo album. To me, Westerberg hasn’t really come close enough to the songs on “All Shook Down” with his solo stuff. It’s easily the most commercial album that the band made. However, this is only because of its production, it definitely doesn’t have songs as strong and anthemic as the earlier stuff. Nothing on the album comes anywhere near “Achin’ To Be”, “Unsatisfied”, “I’ll Be You”, “Kiss Me On The Bus”, or “I Will Dare”.

It always makes me think how massive they would’ve been had those songs been on a later album with the glossy production that “All Shook Down” benefits from. But even then, just as they always did, they probably would’ve found some way of fucking things up when they were on the crest of greatness.

Westerberg is still on top form though. That's probably the thing everyone loves most about the band, Westerberg's talent with his lyrics.

Despite the songs themselves not being as strong as earlier songs, and half the band missing, I still love the way the album makes me feel every single time I listen to it and the little smile I get from some of Westerberg's one-liners.

Sometimes the tunes don’t have to be the best tunes ever, sometimes the melodies don’t have to infect your brain, and sometimes the musicianship doesn’t have to be cock on. Sometimes you can just hear something, fall in love with it and feel 16 all over again.

To finish off with, here's a fat, bald man covering the album's title track.........