The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me (LP + 3CD)

Some records feel like postcards from a band at a crossroads. Pleased to Meet Me is that kind of note, stamped June 1987 and mailed from Memphis. The Replacements had just become a trio after Bob Stinson’s exit, and instead of freezing up, they booked time at Ardent Studios with producer Jim Dickinson and came back with something punchy, tuneful, and oddly elegant. It is a love letter to messy rock and roll and a nod to the city that birthed Big Star. If you know the room at Ardent, you can hear it in the air, the way the guitars sit and the drums crack.

It kicks off with I.O.U., a two minute blast that feels like they are shaking off the hangover from the Tim era and daring you to keep up. Then Alex Chilton sails in, one of the great tributes in guitar pop. Paul Westerberg’s grin is practically audible as he sings Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton, while the band swings behind him with almost Replacements-like neatness. They tracked this in the same studio where Chilton and Big Star built their cult, which gives the track a neat bit of circular history. It is no surprise it became a fan favourite and a setlist staple.

Memphis itself leaves fingerprints everywhere. Dickinson leans into space and feel, letting the songs breathe without sanding off the grit. The horn charts that pop up, courtesy of Memphis session players, add colour without turning things glossy. You hear it on the strut of I Don’t Know and the triumphant lift of Can’t Hardly Wait. That latter song had been kicking around in the band’s pocket for years in demo form, but here it finally gets its due, all bright guitars and a sky-high chorus that never wears out.

The Ledge is the album’s most haunting moment, a stark story song that stirred controversy on release. The video was pulled from MTV because of the subject matter around teen suicide, which overshadowed just how carefully written it is. Westerberg’s voice sits in that cracked sweet spot, and the band plays with a restraint they were not always known for. Then you get Skyway, a quiet acoustic sketch that might be the most tender thing they ever captured, a postcard from the Minneapolis skywalks that somehow fits perfectly with everything recorded in a Memphis room.

Pleased to Meet Me is also the sound of a band figuring out how to live without their original guitar hero. Westerberg handles most of the guitar work, and you can hear a new clarity in the arrangements. Chris Mars’ drumming tightens the screws, Tommy Stinson’s bass lines get a touch more melodic, and Dickinson keeps the faders honest. Nightclub Jitters is their tipsy lounge turn, complete with smoky sax, the kind of left-field detour that would have fallen apart if they were trying any harder. Shooting Dirty Pool brings back the scrappy chaos, reminding you they still liked things loud and a little bent.

Critics clocked the shift at the time, and many still argue this is the band’s most consistent studio statement. It balances their two wild poles, the bash and the ballad, without feeling like a compromise. Bob Mehr later mapped the mayhem and heart in Trouble Boys, and this record sits in that story as a pivot point, the moment they proved they could be grown ups without getting dull.

If you are crate digging, Pleased To Meet Me vinyl belongs in the stack right next to Let It Be and Tim. Original Sire pressings pop up, and the recent reissues do the record justice with clean, dynamic cuts. For anyone hunting The Replacements vinyl, this is a sweet entry point, the one to put on when you want to convert a friend in a single side. If you like to buy The Replacements records online, keep an eye out for The Replacements albums on vinyl bundles that pair it with live material or demos. Indie shops here still get copies through, and if you are wandering a Melbourne record store on a Saturday arvo, it is the kind of title you might find on the staff picks shelf with a handwritten tag that just says start here.

More than three decades on, the songs still feel lived in. That is the Replacements trick. They could be chaotic, sure, but they also knew how to catch the moment when the mess turned into something that lasts. Pleased to Meet Me is that moment, preserved on tape at Ardent, loud in the room, and still buzzing when the needle hits. For anyone building a collection of vinyl records Australia wide, it is a keeper, and a reminder that rock and roll grows up best when it refuses to fully behave.