#9 Tim: The Replacements. It took me a long time to get around to liking the Replacements. My college roommate was a big fan, but he was a fan of the early stuff, the 'Sorry Ma' stage, and I just couldnt get into songs like "Gary Has A Boner". But every so often I would hear a song on the stereo and I would think...hey that is a pretty cool song. And then, I listened to one of their CDs - - and I realized that behind the garage-band-drunk-loser vibe of the band were these incredibly honest and powerful lyrics. That is the beauty of the Replacements and every time I listen to them I hear another gem.
On Tim, the Replacements matured just enough to stop singing about their friends getting their tonsils out, but not so much that they cant sing a fun, silly song like Waitress in the Sky, or Kiss Me on the Bus. They can still bring the rock on Lay It Down Clown but then be incredibly sweet and melancholy on Swingin Party. Its an album with a lot of moods and totally unexpected from a bunch of punks from Minneapolis. Tim was their sweet spot, right in the middle of a great triumvurate of CDs which transitioned them from garage teenagers to mellow middle agers.
