Rocktrospectiva: The Brilliant "Let It Be" Turns 40

 

Released 2 October 1984 "Let It Be" was the htird studio album by indie rock band The Replacements, considered a truly  post-punk album, it was recorded by the band after they had grown tired of playing loud and fast exclusively as on their 1983 Hootenanny album; the group decided to write songs that were, according to vocalist Paul Westerberg, a little more sincere.The album spawned the single "I Will Dare".

The Replacements started their career as a punk rock band but had gradually grown beyond the straightforward hardcore of initial albums. Their vocalist Paul Westerberg recalls that "playing that kind of noisy, fake hardcore rock was getting us nowhere, and it wasn't a lot of fun. This was the first time I had songs that we arranged, rather than just banging out riffs and giving them titles.

By 1983, the band would sometimes perform a set of cover songs intended to antagonize whoever was in the audience. Westerberg explained that the punks who made up their audience "thought that's what they were supposed to be standing for, like anybody does what they want and There are no rules. But there were rules and you couldn't do that, and you had to be fast, and you had to wear black, and you couldn't wear a plaid shirt with flares.

According to certain rumors, Peter Buck of R.E.M. was originally intended to produce the album. Buck later confirmed that the band did consider him as a possible producer, but when they met Buck in Athens, Georgia, the band did not have enough material. Buck did manage to contribute to the album in a limited capacity; he said, "I was kind of there for pre-production stuff, did one solo, gave 'em some ideas that seemed to work for the band.

Westerberg's lyrics feature themes of self-consciousness and rejection as felt by awkward youths, and deal with topics such as generational discontent on "Unsatisfied", uncontrollable arousal on "Gary's Got a Boner", and amateurish sexuality on "Sixteen Blue". The album's theme is aligned between adolescence and adulthood, and unlike many other adolescent-themed post-punk records, Let It Be remains less on the subject of angst and incorporates humor and more varied music.

The cover of Let It Be is a photograph of the band sitting on the roof of Bob and Tommy Stinson's mother's house taken by Daniel Corrigan. Michael Azerrad stated that the cover was a "great little piece of mythmaking," showcasing each band member's personality via how they appear in the photograph.

The critics acclaimed the album and considered that the band has matured by incorporating melody in their music instead the trashy garage rock sound, definitely a good and brilliant rock and rocll album, with amazing range of musical ideas that put these regional kids into mainstream, and considered this record as one that represented the peak of American indie rock and now considered a classic.

 

Let It Be Track List: 

 

1. I Will Dare

2. Favorite Thing

3. We're Comin' Out

4. Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out

5. Androgynous

6. Black Diamond

7. Unsatisfied

8. Seen Your Video

9. Gary's Got A Boner 

10. Sixteen Blue 

11. Answering Machine