Don't Tell a Soul (Exp) [Original recording remastered]

Replacements | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 23, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 1989
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino / Rykodisc
• ASIN: B001CI41RC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,068 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Originally released in 1989, the band's second major label record, young fans were expecting a record of radio hits and radio was expecting more punk rock antics... They were both right somehow and sadly this record, like many great and creatively expansive albums was overlooked upon it's initial release by the dedicated fan and the newcomer.
Your screaming, yelling and falling to pieces drunken brothers now added sleepy melancholy, violins, waves of layered
guitar, something that sounded like a 'real' recording and a bit if not a lot of personal vulnerability to the mix. The list of
albums that were once dismissed thoroughly only to be coveted later is as long as the history of contemporary music itself, and includes albums from every group imaginable from Pink Floyd to The Stooges to The Beach Boys to Fela Kuti, The
Replacements 'Don't Tell A Soul' certainly fits into that history comfortably. Twenty years later most fans and critics agree
that songs such as 'Achin' to Be,' the haunted 'Rock 'n' Roll Ghost,' the sweetly self-mythologizing 'Talent Show,' and 'I'll
Be You,' are probably among the best songs performed in the 1990's. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not their best but still a classic, March 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Don't Tell a Soul (Audio CD)

Paul Westerberg once admitted that, with this album, The Replacements really made a serious play for commercial success while trying to hide that attempt. Who could blame them for trying, though? They had put out nothing but brilliant music up until then and had little to show for it but critical respect and a little beer money. This album is great. Not as great as their very best work but great nonetheless. "Rock and Roll Ghost" takes on added poignancy when you know that Paul wrote it about a friend from his early rock days who killed himself and that Paul can't bring himself to sing the song in public. "I'll Be You" is a perfect line-drive that deserved more attention from mainstream radio. And the other songs on the record range from good to miraculous. The Replacements were perhaps the greatest rock and roll band of all time if one uses heart, talent, sense of humor, and soul as criteria. This album is evidence that they knew they deserved more popular attention and were willing to go for it. I just wish it had worked. Then there'd be more kids today having their lives changed like mine was.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A View from the Outside, June 21, 2001

By 

"sparr0" (Kansas City, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Tell a Soul (Audio CD)

It was strange to read the consistent mythos of these reviews: "The 'Mats Grow up and Sell Out (okay or not okay?)" If this really is one of the worst Replacements albums (sorry, I don't even know why they're the "'Mats"), I should just order the rest right now. I was given this disk by a friend of a friend over two years ago, and it has yet to leave my fast-rotation stack. Okay, I was just a bit too old to catch their wave the first time out. Maybe I'm the guy they were selling out to (though since my faves in the day were older Rundgren and Stomu Yamashta, no wonder that ploy didn't work). But this is still brilliant song-writing. I get the calls for better production, better playing, etc. But I think people have to get off being afraid to rate this album highly for fear of sullying the pristine record of the earlier disks. Maybe it's not up to such rarified standards of purity, but it's great listening. It's smooth without being soporific, haunting without ... sound effects, and loaded with unsubtle nuances - interesting small twists on normal pop expectations. People who don't know the Replacements from the Refreshments will hear this album and say "Damn. That's interesting." True-blue Replacementistas, please consider rating this on a scale for all music, not a private, tougher one for 'Mats albums. It won't hurt to have outsiders listen to "your" music; heck, it'll just jack up the price on the used copies of this CD that you probably want to sell anyway.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The rich are gettin' richer and the poor are gettin' drunk.", June 13, 2007

By 

Graeme Wallis (Newcastle, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't Tell a Soul (Audio CD)

The 'Mats' sixth studio album is the one that almost all fans hate. Dismissed as too mainstream and too slick in its production, Don't Tell A Soul is often disregarded in discussion of The Replacements' legacy and influence.

In reality however, the album is a progression from the rawer (and similarly brilliant) Pleased To Meet Me (1987), and is Paul Westerberg's most accomplished work as a songwriter.

The album stands as the band's most melancholy work, Slim Dunlap's lead guitar is refined and understated (replacing Bob Stinson's wild-man solos); Tommy Stinson's bass work is tighter than ever; Chris Mars' drumming is pure precision; and whilst Westerberg's songs are still built on attitude and alienation they are tinged with an air of acceptance and resignation: the band's first and only hit, 'I'll Be You,' hints at the band's desire to become, if only fleetingly, the stars they should have been, had their loutish, beer-soaked immaturity not got the better of them. The problem is, this belligerent f**k-'em-all gusto made The 'Mats so endearing, and the trouble fans have is refusing to acknowledge that even these beautiful losers had to grow up sometime, disavowing the fact that 'Achin' To Be' 'I'll Be You' 'Rock n Roll Ghost' and 'Darlin' One' are some of the most sophisticated rock songs ever written.

As someone has said earlier, if anyone thinks the band had sold out on Don't Tell A Soul, then Westerberg's tortured scream at the opening of 'Anywhere's Better Than Here' should tell them otherwise.