Customer Reviews

Tim (Exp)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Howdy !
'Tim' is one of the best releases of the 1980's and, in my very humble opinion,
the second best release by the Replacements, just a hair behind "Let It Be".
Every song on 'Tim' is either very good or classic !
"Waitress in the sky, Bastards of the young, Left of the dial, Swingin' party"
are all essential Replacements classics.
But my favorite is "Here Comes A Regular"
a sad song about losers in a bar.
One of my all-time favorites.
I remember Westerberg got some static about writing ballads but I
thought they were his best songs, like "Unsatisfied" from the previous album.
Not many can write about heartache the way Paul can.
I saw them on the "Don't Tell A Soul" tour and I wish I saw them more.

The album is a classic so buy it.
The bonus tracks are really nothing special.
Whatever. At least the cd sounds great and it is an upgrade.

Robert

The Replacements probably aren't for everyone but if you're looking for something accessible and comfortable to introduce you to these icons of pop-punk, "Tim" is probably your best choice. Although it may be disappointing to some, "Tim" never decays into the drunken bellowing that characterized The Replacements career. The production is polished, the mixing and mastering are smooth. The songs range from the teen angst "Kiss Me On the Bus," to the silliness, "Waitress in the Sky," to the hard rock anthems "Little Mascara" and "Left of the Dial."

A fine album which was toned down a bit to give it some commercial appeal. That's not always a bad thing, and "Tim" proves it.

I have been anxiously anticipating the remastering of this album forever and when I heard last spring that it would be coming out this Fall I could barely contain myself.
I rushed out to buy it on Tuesday and I cannot stop listening to it. The remastering of this album is just what it has always needed badly. the songs sound much crisper and the bass is much more prominent. I am thrilled with it and really enjoyed the liner notes.
The outtakes I thought were awesome as well. I mean what can you expect from "outtakes"? I'm a long time 'Mats fan so I'm probably biased. In my eyes they could never do wrong...

I agree with the last couple reviews - I liked the outtakes a lot! If there's an annoying trend it is the addition of bad "bonus tracks" at the end of classic reissues. For some reason I feel that I need to like them as much as the original album or I find it disappointing. Of course the outtakes are not as good as the originals, although Can't Hardly Wait (acoustic) and Kiss Me on the Bus (outtake) are pretty good considering the stylistic differences. It's way more concise than Pleased to Meet Me and about the same as Let it Be on the quality/quantity continuum.

"Tim" is another disappointing entry in the Rhino Replacements reissues. Of course this is a great album - possibly the band's best. But, yet again with these Rhino reissues, it is in the presentation of the bonus material that we run into problems. The sound of footsteps and the opening of a door at the end of "Here Comes a Regular" is cheesy and completely unnecessary.

The acoustic version of "Can't Hardly Wait," while okay, isn't as great as Jesperson makes it to be in the notes, calling it "the Holy Grail" of the Sire years. And the electric version of "Can't Hardly Wait" is inferior to the version released on "Nothing for All," as this version is an earlier run-through of the song.

"Nowhere Is My Home" is a pretty good song, but was left off the album for good reason - it just wouldn't have fit. The studio demo version of "Kiss Me on the Bus" is an interesting, more rock (rather than rockabilly) version of the song. The alternate versions of "Waitress" and "Regular" are obviously inferior to the album versions. And what is with the cello at the end of track 17 playing what seems like a snippet of "Can't Hardly Wait"? Does this actually date from the "Tim" era, or did Rhino add it themselves? Very odd.

So, while the bonus material on "Tim" is a cut above the bonus material on the "Let It Be" reissue (and the liner notes are much more informative than the navel-gazing notes for "Let It Be"), the only bonus song really worth having is "Nowhere Is My Home." However, the remastered album sounds great, so it is probably worth updating your old CD. Rhino could have treated the Mats with a little more class by losing the footsteps and the cello.