Question for old school Mats fans #2

[nazareth]

I have always wondered what old school mats fans thought of Paul's first couple solo records. I could see how fans would think "Ok Paul's gonna bring back the spirit of the 'Mats." Even though those are great records, they are very poppy and i was just wondering what the initial reaction was.

[JayTaco]

14 holds up pretty well. I wish he would have recorded it in his basement like he does now. Songs like 1st glimmer and stuff would have been killer. I think if you pull the best from the 1st 3 solo albums, youd end up with 1.5 great records.
Paul brought it back pretty well when you consider his first single was World Class Fad, which is a straight up bitch slap to old Cobain.

[brianlux]

14 Songs- loved it outright. Great mix of songs, excellent song writing. Eventually didn't seem as strong to me overall, but "Once Around the Weekend" and "Angel's Walk" are two of my P.W. favorites. Oh, and on a bad day when everything seems to be going wrong, there's nothing like "You've Had It With You" to make me feel better!

[landshark]

Lots of great songs, I was quite dedicated to both in their day. The thing that stops me from playing them a lot now is that neither seems to cohere as an album -- sound, emotional tone, flow -- in the way that (love 'em or hate 'em) Suicaine, Mono, Stereo and Folker all do. When I throw a CD on I don't wanna hit that "skip" button, I just wanna put the thing on and be in that place for 45 minutes or so.

[timtoast]

landshark said:

When I throw a CD on I don't wanna hit that "skip" button, I just wanna put the thing on and be in that place for 45 minutes or so.

There's a question for ya.....how many of you/us will hit "skip" when listening to a PW/Replacements CD? Do you feel skipping is ok or do you feel like you're slapping Paul in the face by admitting something he did wasn't worthy of your 3.5 minutes? For that matter, will you play his CD's tracks in random mode and thereby ignore his rational/choice of putting the songs in a certain order for a reason?

And if PW falls alone in the forest, will he make a sound?

Ponder these mysteries of the universe, if you will.....

[dashblank]

Yeah, I think 14 and Eventually could make one incredible disc.... I may be in the minority, but I think Suicane Gratification is one of the great underrated albums of all time. Clearly a different approach than what would follow it, but man.... I love that album.

[nazareth]

I will NEVER press skip. Even the songs that aren't as great are part of a whole, and i like to keep it that way.

[smc1124]

Of all of PW's solo albums I like Stereo the best . I can hear that one straight through

[Tarzan]

There's not a recording of anybody that doesn't get the "skip" button in my house. I loved the solo stuff PW did. Thought it was as good if not better than Mats stuff. One thing that impressed me about PW is that he has put the Stones in the dust with consistently quality output for more than 20 years as opposed to the Stones maybe 15 years of quality (with the post--It'Only rock 'n Roll recordings somewhat half-ass, except for the slow side of Tattoo You that was recorded in Goat's Head Soup and Black & Blue days, I think.) "Runaway Wind" and "Once aroud the Weekend" slay me.

[bigbak]

Listening to Folker as I drove into work today, I noted that there was not one track that even tempted me to hit the skip. That's strong right there.

[TomT]

I never skip. No Skip!



*vague seinfeld ref.


I love 14 Songs except for maybe 2 songs. Same for Eventually. Some really great songs on both and each are worth the price of admission.

[scoOter]

i have skipped tracks with ALL of my favorites at one time or another. sometimes i am simply not in the mood to hear "androgynous" or "angels walk" (even though i lovelovelove both tracks).

that said, i do find myself fighting back guilt sometimes when i skip tracks. then i kick myself, and tell myself to knock it off.

[BlitzkriegBob]

I like 14 Songs a lot, better than ASD - I believe there was a long wait until Eventually and I was REALLY disappointed with it. After the first listen I took it out of the CD player and threw it across the room. I remember thinking , "WTF Paul?, three years for this shit?". After I sobered up, I listened again and - while often forced and mediocre - I figured I shouldn't destroy it. Maybe listened to it once since then. Like some of SG a lot, Stereo/Mono is by far the best solo album IMHO.

[ih8music]

I recall being very disappointed in both 14 Songs and Eventually when they first came out because I had an irrational hope that Paul's solo career would bring him closer to PTMM or Tim musically, rather than be a continuation of DTAS and ASD into "pop" music. In retrospect, it's of course a silly idea to think that Tommy, Chris and/or Slim were pulling out the "softer" side of Paul and that once he went solo he'd start kicking ass again.

Anyway, I got over it by the time SG came out and I loved it (but feared that I'd be reading about a Westerberg suicide after I listened to it). I had tears of joy (literally) upon hearing those first few tracks on Mono when it came out... seemed like happiness was finally back in Paul's life and made it into his music again.

And I agree completely that Stereo/Mono are Westerberg's top solo discs.

(btw, I can't think of a single track of music - westy or otherwise - that i wouldn't skip. no song can overrule what my mind is craving or on the flip side, what it doesn't feel like hearing)

[Stegman]

I liked both 14 Songs and Eventually when they came out. Eventually seemed a little bit more coherent to me as an album, but it didn't rock as hard as 14 Songs. I like both better than All Shook Down, and I like both better than Suicaine.

I'm a skipper when the need arises.

[FreeRider]

I have to say I liked 14 Songs and Eventually, I had no problems with those songs. Would I have liked him to be harder edged and more rocking? Yeah, but I also realized that those songs on those first two solo albums kicked high ass over most anything else I was hearing on the radio back then.

And when he got to Suicaine? Well, that was a really moody album, reflective of what was going on in his life and I liked it too, although I have to be in certain mood to hear it. I really thought he was grew as a songwriter on SG. I've skipped songs before but have later come back to them and given them a new chance and grew to like them.

[landshark]

May 3, 2008 0:05:21 GMT -5 bigbak said:

Listening to Folker as I drove into work today, I noted that there was not one track that even tempted me to hit the skip. That's strong right there.

Hey guys, how does it happen that a 27-month dormant thread gets resurrected? How did you even know it was there, BigBak?
Just curious. I was going to reply and then I realized I already did back in 2006 ...

As for skipping, I like listening to the iPod on shuffle and I force myself to listen to every song, even when the hiphop songs my son snuck onto my playlist come up -- otherwise I'd be skipping everything, all the time.

[bigbak]

May 5, 2008 12:52:25 GMT -5 landshark said:

[Hey guys, how does it happen that a 27-month dormant thread gets resurrected? How did you even know it was there, BigBak?

There are thread killers, and there are thread resurrecturers (sp?). I'm the Lazarus pit of threads.

Seriously, somedays I just get bored and troll through a few of the old pages reading threads I missed the first time around. If it strikes me to comment, I do. This time out I was looking for threads that might relate to the re-issues.

[ujraht]

The nice thing about 14 Songs and the subsequent tour was that that lp was closer to the later mats albums than Eventually. Great LP!!!!!The Neighborhoods backed Paul on tour and they Rocked; and since Paul worked with Matt Wallace on Don't tell a soul, he was in familiar ground. Eventually as an album and tour were more of a departure. Tommy Keene on lead guitar for that tour was really cool, Paul was trying to make a statement by wearing a suit and tie to start the shows. Eventually showed great promise with Brendon O'Brien producing, but Paul fired him and Eventually and Suicane (Don Was produced) were pushed aside by me in favor of trading mats boots shows through alt.music.replacements. Since Paul started recording in his basement, I have loved all of his releases especially Come Feel Me Tremble. He does his best work without a producer which gets him back to his original Mats writing/recording process. Jim Dickinson broke the post Bob mold during the recording of PTMM. Ben Nichols of Lucero worked with Jim Dickinson and he echoed what has been written about the PTMM sessions. Jim told him they could only play drunk, but if they got too drunk, they'd fall apart. They had short windows of time for the recording of that album.

Tom

[TomT]

May 7, 2008 12:45:49 GMT -5 ujraht said:

Eventually showed great promise with Brendon O'Brien producing, but Paul fired him and Eventually and Suicane (Don Was produced) were pushed aside by me in favor of trading mats boots shows through alt.music.replacements.
Tom

I remember those days. Back when we used to trade cassettes. I have a box full of them as mementos. Mats boots rock. Can't wait to see what PJ comes up with for the live box.