Don't Tell a Soul

Replacements

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: February 1, 1989
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sire / London/Rhino
• ASIN: B000002LGD
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #116,776 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 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

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.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked, October 21, 2004

By	Dreamin' "dreamin'" (Rock City, USA) - See all my reviews

If I could confess to you something I have noticed for years about my favorite band from the 80's The Replacements. Many of the Replacement fans are idiots. They cannot accept that a man grows older and changes. I remember when I first bought Don't tell a Soul the complaining from Mats fans. Paul sounds incredibly reserved. So the boys who played loud, fast and obnoxious grew up. Must we crucify them. The fact remains that "Rock & Roll Ghost" is a freighting epitaph for a man who has given his life to rock and roll and just disappeared before everyone's eyes. Since the Replacements were essentially ghosts none of the Tom Petty fans seemed to have minded when he lifted the line "Rebel without a clue" line from "I'll Be You" for one of his lame excuses for rock and roll. PETTY HAD A HIT WITH IT! "Darlin' One" hold the emotion of a man screaming the loss of a woman he so desperately wants and cannot have. Is that what the songs is about? I don't know that's what I read into it. That is what the song means to me! "We'll Inherit the Earth" should have been a Generation X mantra. Except it came out 3 years too early. This is a great album with great songwriting. This is one of the Replacements finest moments and the majority of Replacement fans dismiss it.......Simpletons......

6 of 6 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

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.