The first of two listed albums from The Replacements is the band’s third studio album. The 1984 release was received extremely well by critics and appears on several greatest album lists, besides this one. The band was critically acclaimed for showing a great maturity beyond their previous releases.
Sara
Full disclosure: I thought the Replacements were the band that sang the theme song from ‘Friends,’ so I was pretty shocked when I realized this was incredible. I was expecting stuff Ross would like, but I WILL be there for these guys.
‘I Will Dare’ sucked me into this one bigtime right from the beginning. It’s no surprise that it’s on The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The fact that singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg plays a mandolin makes it automatically awesome, but add to that the fact that REM’s Peter Buck is on the guitar and it’s a full package.
How young are you?
How old am I?
Let’s count the rings around my eyes
How smart are you?
How dumb am I?
Don’t count any of my advice
Oh, meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I might dare
Call me on Thursday, if you will
Or call me on Wednesday, better still
Ain’t lost yet, so I gotta be a winner
Fingernails and a cigarette’s a lousy dinner
Young, are you? Wo oo
C’mon meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now, I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I will dare
Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now, I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I will dare
My favorite song on this is ‘We’re Coming Out’ b/c it’s absolutely off-the-rails. It’s the heaviest part of a heavy album and, as the third track, it’s where you start to realize you’re listening to something really special. eMusic called this album a cornerstone of alternative rock and I couldn’t’ agree more. ‘We’re Coming Out’ is so intense I could see it being a favorite of Kurt Cobain’s. If you haven’t heard it, it’s basically the exact opposite of Rent’s ‘No Day But Today.’
One more chance to get it all wrong
One more chance to get it all wrong
One more night to do it all wrong
One more warning
One more warning sound
We’re comin’ out
We’re comin’ out
We’re comin’ out
One more day anyway
One more chance thrown away
One more night anyway
Anyway, anyway
We’re comin’ out
Right after your heartbeat starts to return to normal after ‘We’re Coming Out,’ you’re swept into an almost euphoric state with ‘Androgynous.’ The vocals are top-notch and it’s truly a spell-binding ballad. It will 100% be something I return to frequently. It also struck a chord because of the prevalence of gender fluidity in society today. This song has been covered by The Crash Test Dummies as well as Miley Cyrus, but much more importantly, it was covered by Joan Jett on two albums.
Here’s a live version of Joan’s cover and it’s terrific:
We took a break on this project for a couple months and this was an amazing way to come back in. this album has everything—hard rock, piano ballads and everything in between. Literally every song is spectacular and different from the one before it. There’s been a lot in this project that I’ve fallen in love with and this is WAY up the list. Outstanding, outstanding album. I’d like to thank this album for being nothing like the stupid Keanu Reeves movie of the same name. PS., Keanu and I share a birthday
Steve
This was a great album to listen to. For some reason all I could think of when I was looking them up was the Friends theme song, but that is The Rembrandts. Thank god, I was not sure that I could handle an album of whatever else that dumpster fire of a one hit wonder put out.
This would have been a great album to listen to a few days ago during our February heat wave. My favorite thing to do when winter is finally ending is drive around with my windows down blaring fun music. This would have done nicely. Don’t get me wrong, Black Sabbath worked well, but this would have fit a little better for my tastes.
This one starts off strong with “I Will Dare,” the album’s only single. The song features Peter Buck of R.E.M. playing guitar, and front-man Paul Westerberg playing the mandolin.
How young are you
How old am I
Let’s count the rings
Around my eye
How smart are you
How dumb am I
Don’t count any
Of my advice
Oh, meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I might dare
Call me on Thursday, if you will
Or call me on Wednesday, better still
Ain’t lost yet, so I gotta be the winner
Fingernails and cigarettes, a lousy dinner
Young, are you?
Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now, I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I will dare
Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now, I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I will dare
How young are you?
How old am I?
Let’s count the rings
Around my eyes
How smart are you?
How smart are you?
How dumb am I?
Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now, I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I will dare
Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime
Now, I don’t care, meet me tonight
If you will dare, I will dare
Surprisingly my other favorite track on this one was a KISS cover. “Black Diamond” was written by KISS guitarist Paul Stanley, and became a staple of their live sets. I can’t recall hearing the KISS version, but this one definitely had me drumming on my chair.
Out on the street for a living
You know it’s only begun
They’ve got you under their thumb
Out on the street for a living
And it is only begun
Doing all that you can
And now you’re under their thumb
Oooh, black diamond
Oooh, black diamond
Out on the street for a country
And it’s only a dream
Got other people marching
And it’s only a way
Out on the street for a living
You know it is only begun
Regardless a street or a country
They got you under their thumb
I was glad to hear an album from a band I had never heard of that I enjoyed. They show up again in another hundred albums or so. I am excited to see what catapulted them that far up the list!
I Would Rock 500 Albums 