- The Replacements - Tim (Let It Bleed Edition)
There are 54 (!) songs in this release: two full versions of the album (a full remix and the 2023 remaster), 15 demos and alternative versions, and then 28 live tracks. Whew. So far, I have only listened to the first of the two new versions of the album: the Ed Stasium remixes. I heard two tracks of this on Spotify and knew I had to get the rest. It's amazing. The original, like a lot of mid-80s indie records (the other Replacements' records, Sonic Youth's "Sister", Dino Jr's early albums, etc.), always sounded a bit muffled to me. But this is the complete opposite of muffled. Everything is crisp and loud. More than just a remaster (which is like adjusting brightness or color balance of a picture after you've taken it), this is a full remix (which is more like rearranging the objects and lighting and taking the photo again); instrument levels and their stereo positioning are different, effects applied in the original version weren't applied here, and different editing choices were made. The drums and bass are way up front, the guitars are sharp but pushed back in the mix and the vocals are incredibly clear. Tons of things that the original recordings buried or outright muted were left in: little guitar frills everywhere, Paul Westerberg's vocal interjections, background vocals(!). The way various parts are raised or lowered vs the original gives many of the songs very different vibes. Which I find fascinating. I had to listen very closely at first to make sure they weren't entirely new versions that Westerberg had recorded (pulling a Taylor Swift move or something). A couple of songs are even longer: "Little Mascara" is almost a minute longer (the original faded out long before the band stopped) and "Here Comes A Regular" has a few extra seconds (including a line that was dropped) near the end. What a great thing. I wish more bands would do this. (Just found out that Robyn Hitchcock is doing this with "Globe Of Frogs", yay).
- Horsegirl - Phonetics On And On. A couple of months ago I didn't know I wanted to hear anything that sounded like a mixture of Stereolab's vocals, early Pavement's guitars all in something like The Vaselines' or Beat Happening's general sunny but happily-primitive vibe. Now I realize I did. And I'm better for it. Great album. Very catchy.
- The Sorcerers - Other Worlds And Habits. This modern British trio specializes in exploring the sounds of 1960's Ethiopian jazz. And they do it very well. The only thing that would cause one to mistake this for original 60's Ethiopian jazz is the fact that it doesn't sound like it was recorded on sketchy gear, 60 years ago. Fun.
- Shellac - To All Trains. Losing Steve Albini last year was a huge blow to the indie music scene in general. He was a giant. And specifically, it means this was Shellac's last album. And it's a good one. Shellac had a very specific sound: very clean production of very loud instruments with a lot of empty space for contrast. They got a lot of mileage out of it, and yet it always sounded fresh. I would have kept buying these records forever. Alas. Fittingly, the last song is named "I Don't Fear Hell" ("If there's a heaven, I hope they're having fun / because if there's a hell I'm gonna know everyone!").
ok-cleek
I dare you to despise bureaucracy and all its lies
I have been listening to these Tim remixes almost to an unhealthy degree, including, oddly enough, just this past weekend. What a masterpiece. And the “Tim” version of Can’t Hardly Wait is just a revelation. I think there’s been an unfortunate side effect in that I like Pleased to Meet Me even less now. I always thought of that record as, “Well they wanted to do something crisp and cleaner and they tried their best.” But now I realize they nailed it with Tim, and now Pleased to Meet Me is even more of an overcorrection that I’d previously thought.
I just heard that a huge sprawling Let it Be remix edition comes out in November. I am super excited.
i’ve always been a fan of ‘Pleased…’. it’s definitely slicker than it needs to be (at least it’s not as slick as ‘All Shook Down’), but most of the songs are solid. a “Pleased To Meet Me [Naked]” release could be good.
a Let It Be remix should be awesome!