I hate ILoveMusic, it's got too many POLLS - Artist Poll #104 - THE REPLACEMENTS - RESULTS

That The Current article is fascinating. The lack of hardly any consensual, plus the fact that last night I was regretting not placing “Gary’s got a boner” in my Top 5 when not a single of the panelists or fans even placed it on their list. And again, that thread of haters? Just as a student of the diversity in the way people hear and interpret music, it’s providing endless fascination to me.

*consensus

Lists are serious business man! You can't go around putting "Gary's Got a Boner" on them all willy-nilly like that. You will lose the respect of the community.

i included boner in my top 30. i didn't even really want to, to be honest, but i just figured i should do it

That’s understandable. Rock’n’roll is best when reverent and respectable. Bawdy vulgarity in rock is just the worst.

the Boner is gone but he's not forgotten.

https://i.imgur.com/8NmuPDK.jpg

i grew up on boner. the character boner, but also a baseball trivia book that included a full-page feature dedicated to Merkle's Boner

related: by the time i got to middle school, these were still my main 2 thoughts regarding "boners", and I was publicly humiliated on the last day of 8th grade by asking the band instructor what a boner was in front of 80+ of my peers

and she wouldn't even tell me

Wow, that thread. I love a “boring“ record as much as I love anything in this big dumb, chintz-worshipping world, evidently. “You’re all wrong and I’m right” ‘til the day I die.

I'll just say Tim Ellison was flat-out wrong about the 'Mats. May he rest in peace. Godspeed Tim.

He has risen again

Ha, messed that up a little. Roll Away the Stone

I tried a new approach to ballot generation, wonder if I will keep it for the next POLL.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/arts/music/texas-is-the-reason-punk-photos.html

Ha, messed that up a little. Roll Away the Stone

LOL

https://images2.imgbox.com/b6/3f/3GbgLwpM_o.jpg

#13
PAUL WESTERBERG - Got You Down
from Stereo (2002)
Score: 76
Votes: 4 (0)
Youtube: audio track

By the way, here's an optional side-game: guess which track that has already been rolled out is actually significantly more popular that originally credited and will soon appear again!

You got me.

You had me at "Hello, this is the Minneapolis Police."

https://images2.imgbox.com/8e/0b/63EkaDkO_o.jpg

#12
GRANDPABOY - Eyes Like Sparks
from Mono (2002)
Score: 77
Votes: 4 (0)
Youtube: audio track

The newly corrected entry is a little later on, to be clear. I did the "two separate entries for the one track in my spreadsheet" trick. This side-poll is the only time where I've not worked from complete reference list at the outset to avoid such a thing. Oh well.

Anyway, that there Stereo/Mono is pretty popular, hey!

https://images2.imgbox.com/a7/8f/DI9RM4UW_o.jpg

#11
BASH & POP ‎– First Steps
from Friday Night Is Killing Me (1993)
Score: 83
Votes: 3 (1)
Youtube: audio track

Only three votes?

To fair, that's pretty respectable here. Modest pool of voters, *very* wide range of tracks to choose from (much, much broader than the 100-and-something in the main poll) etc, etc....

The vaguely contentious one. Voters were mostly happy to treat it as one integrated suite, so...

https://images2.imgbox.com/4a/bb/L241FHgG_o.jpg

#10
PAUL WESTERBERG - 49:00
from 49:00 (2008)
Score: 83
Votes: 4 (0)
Soundcloud: complete audio

https://images2.imgbox.com/f6/74/twzfxX2u_o.jpg

#9
PAUL WESTERBERG - First Glimmer
from 14 Songs (1993)
Score: 85
Votes: 3 (1)
Youtube: audio track

Respectful silence during the recital or no one in the pews? LOL.

I quite like the last few. "First Glimmer" has grown on me in the past couple of weeks. Seemed a bit tepid once.

I’m still pretty mystified about what’s going to make it - with a small voter pool and non-canonical artists, anything is possible.

I voted for a 49:00 track, but it makes more sense as a piece.

https://images2.imgbox.com/d2/7c/sdpIYj0D_o.jpg

#8
PAUL WESTERBERG - As Far As I Know
from Folker (2004)
Score: 89
Votes: 3 (0)
Youtube: audio track

https://images2.imgbox.com/5f/81/RjsOL1yV_o.jpg

#7
CHRIS MARS - Popular Creeps
from Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (1992)
Score: 93
Votes: 3 (0)
Youtube: original promo video

Pappy The Clown places!

I was relieved upon realising the top 10 wasn't going to be purely a Westerberg/Stinson affair.

Is it at all possible to predict what the remainder will be? (One of which you've already seen, erroneously.) I really don't know.

https://images2.imgbox.com/26/2a/FLxxIBC6_o.jpg

#6
BASH & POP ‎– Never Aim to Please
from Friday Night Is Killing Me (1993)
Score: 102
Votes: 3 (0)
Youtube: audio track

That Bash & Pop record is so full of hooks.

https://images2.imgbox.com/f2/ea/eIZulBlM_o.jpg

#5
PAUL WESTERBERG - Only Lie Worth Telling
from Stereo (2002)
Score: 102
Votes: 4 (0)
Youtube: audio track

I kinda feel like more talk about Stereo/Mono tracks would be helpful. What did he (apparently) get so right with that set of tracks?

https://images2.imgbox.com/28/51/leRCRK4K_o.jpg

#4
GRANDPABOY - High Time
from Mono (2002)
Score: 108
Votes: 4 (0)
Youtube: audio track

For me it was like he regained something essential that was missing in those 90’s albums. A more lo-fi aesthetic may be part of that I believe.

https://images2.imgbox.com/73/89/FiEjNzx5_o.jpg

#3
BASH & POP ‎– Tiny Pieces
from Friday Night Is Killing Me (1993)
Score: 125
Votes: 5 (0)
Youtube: audio track
Youtube: live in Los Angeles, 2017

People seem particularly shy about commenting on this project. I gave this one a healthy number of points myself.

Here's the one I messed up. Not tied for 27th place. 2nd place in fact, with all votes merged. Quite a monumental error. Because it initially had an entry in my top 10 already, few other rankings need adjustment.

#2
PAUL WESTERBERG - We May Be the Ones
from Stereo (2002)
Score: 137
Votes: 5 (0)
Youtube: audio track
Youtube: Late Night with Conan O'Brien, 2002

May as well post the image again.

https://images2.imgbox.com/22/42/2k7NYTCx_o.jpg

It’s hilarious and I suppose fits a kind of pattern: what others seem to like the most just does nothing for me (and vice versa)!

:)

Is #1 guessable at this point? A fair proportion of voters voted for it.

World Class Fad? 1990s Westerberg hasn't been very popular though.

https://images2.imgbox.com/f7/e8/Uxpnpb7e_o.jpg

#1
PAUL WESTERBERG - World Class Fad
from 14 Songs (1993)
Score: 184
Votes: 7 (1)
Youtube: original promo video
Youtube: Jools Holland, 1993

I voted with a pretty heavy Stereo/Mono tilt, so this is how I came at it. Alfred posted above about the expectations he brought to Singles, I suppose this is that story in reverse.

I'm a lifelong Replacements/Westerberg fan. I saw The Replacements Let It Be-All Shook Down, and then one of the solo shows with Tommy Keene on guitar. All Shook Down through Eventually all had their moments, but Suicaine felt like he had lost the script entirely, and in 2002 I don't think expectations could have been any lower. To call it a nadir seems appropriate. So it was pretty shocking that he dropped not one but 2 wall-to-wall great albums that have held up remarkably well. You hear that opening line 'Baby learns to crawl/watching daddy's skin' and the effect is just chilling. It was a fairly astonishing return to form that we have seem glimpses of since, but it's far and away his best solo work.

Had to reboot, btw. LOL. Wasn't intending to build suspense for that long.