The Replacements: Tim : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Released in 1985, 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. This version — reissued along with three other 'Mats albums, none of which is quite as tuneful as Tim — brightens the sound and adds six bonus cuts, including a bare-bones version of "Here Comes a Regular," Paul Westerberg's moving acoustic ballad about directionless barflies. Rarely did Westerberg write so poignantly, and Tim marked the height of the band's powers — it was its final album with Bob Stinson, the notoriously soused guitarist who helped give the group its lovably shambling sound.