Replacements anthologized
The Replacements
Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was? The Best Of The Replacements
(Sire/Reprise/Rhino)
Touted as the first compilation featuring both The Replacements’ label careers, Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was? concentrates a little too heavily on their serious side.
The most important part of The ‘Mats’ story was an uncanny skill for self-sabotage. After the trash rock years are covered in the first five songs, this (chronological) retelling of their story aims for frontman Paul Westerberg as the proto-Cobain, generational icon instead of the tragic comics the whole band were. Stacking the loneliness and skillfully unempolyed elements of Let It Be, Tim, and Pleased To Meet Me portrays The Replacements as at fault for Goo Goo Dolls and the like, as opposed to the incorrigible drunkards who penned “Gary’s Got A Boner.” Two newly recorded tracks with Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars (who only contributed vocals, not his standard drums) sound like encapsulations of the Replacement sound instead of lost classics, maybe even more like Westerberg solo cuts circa ’91.
Don’t You Know captures the early tracks always missing from 1997’s All For Nothing compilation, yet the story has yet to be successfully told in collection format.
— Kevin Keegan
