Tim＜Magenta Pink Vinyl/生産限定盤＞

秋の夜長に相応しい企画が昨年に続いて登場!ロックの秋に、ワーナーが誇るロックの名盤を限定盤アナログ・レコードでリリースするシリーズ、"ROCKTOBER"(ロックトーバー)が今年も実現!!リプレイスメンツからユートピア、ドリーム・シアターにディープ・パープルにロックンロール・ハイスクールのサントラまで、今年も聴きごたえのある作品揃い。いずれも生産限定盤となる。

【THE REPLACEMENTS / TIM】
80年代を中心に活躍した元祖オルタナティブ・ロック・バンド、ザ・リプレイスメンツ。初期はハード・コア・パンク色の強いサウンドだったが、アルバム・リリースを重ねていくにつれ、彼らはパンクをルーツとした自身のアイデンティティを維持しつつも、フロントマンのポール・ウェスターバーグのソング・ライティングを生かしたルーツ色の強いサウンドへと変化していく。その変化の起点ともよべるSIRE移籍第一弾アルバムであり、ポール・ウェスターバーグのポップ性が花開いた傑作が本作『TIM』である。(1985年作品) 140gram盤 マゼンタ・ピンク・アナログ

Rolling Stone (p.132) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "TIM caught a great American garage band stretching out, working Big Star pop and Fifties-style rock into a mix of punky abandon and regular-dude romanticism." Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.128) - Ranked #136 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "[A] crucial template for grunge, alternative country and, recently, the noisy introspection of emo." Rolling Stone (5/25/00, p.76) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "...Rangy, obstreperous, unsparing, funny and ever tuneful - turning post-adolescent confusion into some kind of screwed-up enlightenment." Q (10/93, p.127) - 4 Stars - Excellent Alternative Press (7/95, p.76) - Ranked #4 in AP's list of the `Top 99 Of '85-'95' - "...it's still just about impossible to put into words how great the Replacements were and how tremendous a record TIM is. Coming on the heels of possibly the greatest rock and roll album (LET IT BE) and preceding another classic (PLEASED TO MEET ME), TIM is the heart of an amazing trilogy..." CMJ (1/5/04, p.18) - Ranked #15 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1986" Mojo (Publisher) (p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "1985's TIM is where Westerberg found his range, and consistently so..."

Moving to a major label was inevitable for the Replacements: they garnered too much acclaim and attention after Let It Be to stay on Twin/Tone, especially as the label faced the same distribution problems that plagued many indies in the mid-'80s -- plus, the 'Mats' crosstown rivals, Husker Du, made the leap to the big leagues, paving the way for their own hop over to Sire. The Replacements may have left Twin/Tone behind but they weren't quite ready to leave Minneapolis in the dust, choosing to record in their hometown with Tommy Erdelyi -- aka Tommy Ramone -- who gives the 'Mats a big, roomy sound without quite giving them gloss; compared to Let It Be, Tim is polished, but compared to many American underground rock records of the mid-'80s (including those by the Ramones), it's loose and kinetic. The production -- guitars that gained muscle, drums and vocals that gained reverb -- is the biggest surface difference, but there aren't just changes in how the Replacements sound; what they're playing is different too, as Paul Westerberg begins to turn into a self-aware songwriter. A large part of the charm of Let It Be was how it split almost evenly between ragged vulgarity and open-hearted rockers, with Westerberg's best songs betraying a startling, beguiling lack of affect. That's not quite the case with Tim, as Westerberg consciously writes alienation anthems: the rallying cry of "Bastards of Young" and the college radio love letter "Left of the Dial," songs written with a larger audience in mind -- not a popular audience, but a collection of misfits across the nation, who huddled around Westerberg's raw, twitchy loneliness on "Swingin Party" and "Here Comes a Regular," or the urgent and directionless "Hold My Life." These songs are Westerberg at his confessional peak, but instead of undercutting this ragged emotion or hiding it away, as he did on the Twin/Tone albums, he pairs it with the exuberance of "Kiss Me on the Bus" -- an adolescent cousin to "I Will Dare" -- and channels his smart-ass comments into the terrifically cynical rockabilly shuffle "Waitress in the Sky." All this eats up so much oxygen that there's not much air left for any of the recklessness of the Twin/Tone LPs: there's no stumbling, no throwaway jokes, with even the twin rave-ups of "Dose of Thunder" and "Lay It Down Clown" straightened out, no matter how much Bob Stinson might try to pull them apart, which is perhaps the greatest indication that the Replacements were no longer the band they were just a couple years ago. Some 'Mats fans never got over this change, but something was gained in this loss: the Replacements turned into a deeper band on Tim, one that spoke, sometimes mumbled, to the hearts of losers and outcasts who lived their lives on the fringe. If Let It Be captured the spirit of the Replacements, then Tim captured their soul. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine