''Let It Be'' is the third studio album by American
rock band
The Replacements. It was released on October 2, 1984 by
Twin/Tone Records. A
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...
album with
coming-of-age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can be ...
themes, ''Let It Be'' was recorded by the band after they had grown tired of playing loud and fast exclusively as on their 1983 ''
Hootenanny'' album; the group decided to write songs that were, according to vocalist
Paul Westerberg, "a little more sincere."
''Let It Be'' was acclaimed by music critics and later ranked among the greatest albums of the 1980s by
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...
and ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' magazine.
Now considered a classic, ''Let It Be'' is frequently included on professional lists of the all-time best rock albums,
being ranked number 241 on ''Rolling Stone''s list of
the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The album was
remastered and reissued in 2008, with six additional tracks and liner notes by
Peter Jesperson.
Background
The Replacements started their career as a punk rock band but had gradually grown beyond the straightforward hardcore of initial albums like ''
Stink''. Westerberg recalls that "playing that kind of noisy, fake hardcore rock was getting us nowhere, and it wasn't a lot of fun. This was the first time I had songs that we arranged, rather than just banging out riffs and giving them titles."
By 1983, the band would sometimes perform a set of cover songs intended to antagonize whoever was in the audience. Westerberg explained that the punks who made up their audience "thought that's what they were supposed to be standing for, like 'Anybody does what they want' and 'There are no rules'
..But there ''were'' rules and you ''couldn't'' do that, and you ''had'' to be fast, and you ''had'' to wear black, and you ''couldn't'' wear a plaid shirt with flares ... So we'd play the
DeFranco Family, that kind of shit, just to piss 'em off."
Peter Buck of
R.E.M. was originally rumored to produce the album. Buck later confirmed that the band did consider him as a possible producer, but when they met Buck in
Athens, Georgia
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the ...
, the band did not have enough material. Buck did manage to contribute to the album in a limited capacity; he said, "I was kind of there for pre-production stuff, did one solo, gave 'em some ideas."
Music and lyrics
Westerberg's lyrics feature themes of self-consciousness and rejection as felt by awkward youths, and deal with topics such as generational discontent on "
Unsatisfied", uncontrollable arousal on "Gary's Got a Boner", and amateurish sexuality on "Sixteen Blue". According to music critic
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...
, the album's
coming-of-age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can be ...
theme is aligned between adolescence and adulthood, and unlike many other adolescent-themed post-punk records, ''Let It Be'' remains less on the subject of angst and incorporates humor and more varied music.
Packaging and title
The cover of ''Let It Be'' is a photograph of the band sitting on the roof of Bob and Tommy Stinson's mother's house taken by Daniel Corrigan. Michael Azerrad stated that the cover was a "great little piece of mythmaking," showcasing each band member's personality via how they appear in the photograph. (As of 2019, the current owners of the house had added a stained-glass window reproducing the album-cover photograph.) The album's title is a reference to the 1970 album ''
Let It Be'' by
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
; Westerberg recalled:
The reference was partially intended as a joke on the Replacements' manager,
Peter Jesperson, who was a huge Beatles fan. Westerberg has stated the name was "our way of saying that nothing is sacred, that the Beatles were just a fine rock & roll band. We were seriously gonna call the next record ''
Let It Bleed''."
Critical reception
Reviewing for ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
'' in 1984, music critic
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
said that the band has matured by incorporating melody in their music and felt that they succeed by writing about their likes and dislikes rather than adhering to
garage rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
principles. Debby Miller of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' magazine called it a "brilliant rock & roll album" and wrote that, instead of the rugged, up-tempo rock of the band's first two albums, ''Let It Be'' has "an amazing range" of musical ideas.
Bruce Pavitt
Bruce S. Pavitt (born March 7, 1959) is the Chicago-born co-founder of independent record label Sub Pop. He attended Evergreen State College where he hosted a show on Evergreen's KAOS radio station before founding Sub Pop.
History
After brief ...
, writing in ''
The Rocket'', called the album "mature, diverse rock that could well shoot these regional boys into the national mainstream." ''Let It Be'' was voted the fourth best album of the year in ''The Village Voice''s annual
Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1984. Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it second best on his own list, and in a decade-end list for the newspaper, named it the tenth best album of the 1980s. He later said that, along with
X's 1981 album ''
Wild Gift'', ''Let It Be'' represented the peak of American
indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...
.
In a retrospective review,
eMusic
eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. In exchange for a monthly subscription eMusic users can download a fixed number of MP3 tracks per month. eMusic was established in 1998, is headquartered in New York Cit ...
's Karen Schoemer said that ''Let It Be'' is "as classic as rock & roll could be" and cited it as a cornerstone album of
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...
, along with
R.E.M.'s ''
Murmur'',
the Pixies
Pixies is an American alternative rock band formed in 1986, in Boston, Massachusetts. Until 2013, the band consisted of Black Francis (vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim Deal (bass, vocals) and David Lovering ...
' ''
Surfer Rosa'', and
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of t ...
's ''
Daydream Nation
''Daydream Nation'' is the fifth full-length studio album and first double album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on October 18, 1988. The band recorded the album between July and August 1988 at Greene St. Recording in Ne ...
''.
Eric Boehlert of ''
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon ( ...
'' called it a "post-punk classic". Singer-songwriter
Colin Meloy
Colin Patrick Henry Meloy (born October 5, 1974) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and author best known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acou ...
wrote of ''Let It Be'' in an edition of the
33⅓
(Thirty-Three and a Third) is a series of books, each about a single music album. The series title refers to the rotation speed of a vinyl LP, RPM.
History
Originally published by Continuum, the series was founded by editor David Barker i ...
series dedicated to the album: "I listened to ''Let It Be'' endlessly. The record seemed to encapsulate perfectly all of the feelings that were churning inside me
..Paul Westerberg's weary voice sounded from my boombox and I trembled to think that here I was, thirteen and the 'hardest age' was still three years in the making." In a 2005 review, ''Rolling Stone''s
Christian Hoard wrote that the Replacements "had no use for the principles or oblique artiness" of contemporary
indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...
bands such as
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of t ...
and
Hüsker Dü, and concluded that "few albums so brilliantly evoke the travails of growing up, and even fewer have so perfectly captured a young band in all its ragged glory."
''Let It Be'' has frequently been included on
professional lists of the all-time best rock albums. In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it at number 239 on its list of 'The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time' and called it "a post-punk masterpiece",
[ slipping to number 241 in a 2012 revision, but climbing to number 156 in the 2020 reboot of the list. In 1989, the magazine had also rated it at #15 on its list of 100 best albums of the '80s.] In the 1999 miniseries "VH1's 100 Greatest Albums of Rock and Roll," VH1 ranked ''Let It Be'' #79. '' Pitchfork'' rated the album at #29 on their 100 Best Albums of the 1980s. ''Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally ...
'' ranked it #12 on their list of the 25 Greatest albums of all time. ''Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yo ...
'' listed the album at #39 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s". The opening track of the album, "I Will Dare
"I Will Dare" is a song by American alternative rock band The Replacements, written by Paul Westerberg. The song's pop stylings were a departure from the band's punk origins and its lyrics reflected the band's willingness to "dare to do anythi ...
" has been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Track listing
Personnel
;The Replacements
*Chris Mars
Chris Mars (born April 26, 1961) is an American painter and musician. He was the drummer for the seminal Minneapolis based alternative-rock band The Replacements from 1979 to 1990, and later joined the informal supergroup Golden Smog before ...
– drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
, vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
* Bob Stinson – lead guitar
Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the fe ...
*Tommy Stinson
Thomas Eugene Stinson (born October 6, 1966) is an American rock musician. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the bass guitarist for The Replacements, one of the definitive American alternative rock groups. After their breakup in 1991, Stins ...
– bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
, vocals
* Paul Westerberg – lead vocals
The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...
, rhythm guitar
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...
, piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
, mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of ...
on "I Will Dare", 12-string electric guitar on “I Will Dare”, lapsteel
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional a ...
on "Unsatisfied", production
;Additional musicians
* Peter Buck – guitar solo
A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular ...
on "I Will Dare"
*Chan Poling
Chandler Hall "Chan" Poling (born October 3, 1957) is an American musician and composer.
Early life and education
Chandler Hall Poling was born in 1957 in Evanston, Illinois. He moved to Minnesota with his family in 1961. He studied composition a ...
– piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
on "Sixteen Blue"
;Technical personnel
*Steve Fjelstad – production
*Peter Jesperson – production
References
;Bibliography
*
External links
Album online
on Radio3Net a radio channel of Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
*
{{Authority control
1984 albums
The Replacements (band) albums
Twin/Tone Records albums
Rhino Entertainment albums
Albums produced by Paul Westerberg
Post-punk albums by American artists