The Replacements Tim: Let It Bleed Edition 4CD & 180g LP

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Released in the fall of 1985, The Replacements' major label debut, Tim, peaked at #192 on the Billboard charts, selling just 75,000 copies. Over time, however, the record would find a mass audience among successive generations thanks to the enduring appeal of anthems like "Bastards of Young" and "Left of the Dial" and ballads like "Swingin Party" and "Here Comes a Regular."

Even with Tim's evolving status as an all-time classic, The Replacements remained unsatisfied with the sound of the record, largely centered on the mix done by the album's producer, Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer Tommy Erdelyi, aka Tommy Ramone. Now, after four decades, the LP has finally been given a long overdue sonic overhaul as part of Tim: Let It Bleed Edition.

The 4CD/1LP deluxe boxed set is built around a stunning new mix of Tim by legendary producer/engineer Ed Stasium (Ramones, Talking Heads) and features a collection of previously unheard tracks (Sons of No One: Rare & Unreleased) and a classic concert from 1986 (Not Ready for Prime Time).

Stasium, who was a close friend and longtime production partner of the late Erdelyi (who died in 2014), has fashioned the definitive mix of the 11-track Tim. Also included is a new and improved mastering of Erdelyi's original 1985 mix of the album. This deluxe edition also includes a disc of unreleased recordings (among them, unearthed material from the band's January 1985 session produced by Big Star legend Alex Chilton); as well as The Replacements' entire January 11, 1986, show at the Cabaret Metro in Chicago. In total, the box includes 65 tracks – 50 of which have never been heard before.

Presented in a 12 x 12 hardcover book – loaded with dozens of previously unseen photos - the set features a detailed history of the Tim era written by Bob Mehr, who produced the box with Rhino's Jason Jones. Mehr, author of The New York Times bestseller Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements, won a Grammy® award for his album notes to the band's 2019 release, Dead Man's Pop.

Mehr writes: "After nearly 40 years, Tim remains a charmed collision of intention and accident, a balance of deliberate anthems and tossed-off gems, of raucous release and refined beauty—and a record that perfectly captures the band's fraught but always compelling ascent on the ladder of success."

In addition to the revelatory new mix, the Tim: Let It Bleed Edition also boasts a fresh cover, featuring an instantly iconic 1985 image of the band in its Minneapolis rehearsal space, taken by noted photographer Moshe Brakha. Coincidentally, Brakha shot the cover of The Ramones' 1977 album Leave Home, a record which marked the first collaboration between Tommy Erdelyi and Ed Stasium.

Stasium – who was originally considered to co-produce Tim with Erdelyi back in 1985 – was entrusted with the remix in 2022 and went back to the original multi-tracks, spending several months creating a fuller, deeply detailed and ultimately more satisfying version of the record, which finally captures the band's raw power. Stasium also completed work on several previously unreleased Tim songs and alternates and did mixes of the Alex Chilton session material.

"I really loved working on this project," noted Stasium. "It's a great record, and now you can hear even better what's great about it. But the best thing for me was that, in a funny and really beautiful way, I got to work with my dear friend Tommy Erdelyi once again."

Even before signing with Sire/Warner Bros. in early 1985, The Replacements – singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Chris Mars and lead guitarist Bob Stinson – began recording new material with their musical/spiritual godfather Alex Chilton that January in their hometown of Minneapolis. They followed up by cutting initial demos with Erdelyi in April, then starting the Tim sessions in earnest that summer. Sons of No One: Rare & Unreleased collects all that material, including illuminating alternate versions of songs like "Can't Hardly Wait," "Bastards of Young," and "Hold My Life" – plus a unique and previously unheard original, "Havin Fun," written by Tommy Stinson, and sung by Westerberg.

The final disc, Not Ready for Prime Time, captures the band performing live at Chicago's Cabaret Metro in January 1986. A soundboard recording made by the band's live mixer, the late Monty Lee Wilkes, the show was a one-off date that came just a week before the group's infamous appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live, which ultimately saw them banned from the network. The 28-song Metro performance finds the original lineup of the band at its final peak, with incendiary versions of Replacements classics ("Color Me Impressed," "Answering Machine"), rarely played deep cuts ("Mr. Whirly," "Go"), as well covers of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Sham 69, plus a rare lead vocal turn from Bob Stinson on The Novas' Minnesota garage rock classic "The Crusher."

Additionally, the Tim: Let It Bleed Edition includes Stasium's new mix of the record on 180-gram vinyl, cut by Chris Bellman of Bernie Grundman mastering.

Many 'Mats fans have long complained about the production on the original Tim, a mix that often suggested that Erdelyi was attempting to reshape the band for FM radio while possessing absolutely no knowledge of what mainstream radio sounded like in 1985, so having Stasium strip away the aural effects and focus on the band interplay fulfills a longheld dream: it makes Tim sound like the sequel to Let it Be, bigger and punchier but still a garage band. It's a remarkable revision — listening to the two mixes back to back on this box is a startling experience — and the Stasium mix also seems aligned with the ragged, enthusiastic band who rages through the Cabaret Metro.

Centered around this new mix, this handsome set fills out the details of the album sessions with rough takes and demos and a hot shit performance by the band from Chicago that shows off all the shades of this peerless rock band's onstage prowess from punk kiss offs to goofball covers to their most heartfelt pleas.