don't tell a soul (1989) - the replacements: sire records, 1-25831

The post-punk world of rock was a very weird place.  New wave, new romantic, electronica, hair metal, and goth all flourished in the wake of the musical freedom left in the residue of the punk revolution.

College indie rock was another format that had its moment in the sun.  Typified by bands like REM, the Lemonheads, the Plimsouls, Dinosaur Jr, and Dramarama, this was a weird amalgam of what could be only called folk-punk.  It had the raw honesty of punk, but it was almost always framed in this soft, fuzzy cocoon of non-threatening music.

A lot of this college-indie rock was little more than brooding navel-gazing stuff focused on the angst of the post-boomers coming into adulthood.  It wasn’t emo, though it certainly did help launch such saccharine bands like Goo Goo Dolls and Radiohead, and it wasn’t really punk, though it did express the sort of disillusionment that would feature so prominently in grunge.   At best indie rock was a fantastic blend of musical skill and astute social commentary. At worst it was a mess of aimless self-indulgence. Basically the musical equivalent of a buffer in chemistry, maintaining a neutral pH of “Meh”.

The Replacements was one of the few indie bands  that showed just how good the post-punk scene could be, peaking with their 1987 album, Pleased to Meet Me.  The success of that album inspired them to break out of the confines of the indie niche and so they tried for mainstream appeal with Don’t Tell A Soul.

Side 1: Talent Show Back to Back We’ll Inherit the Earth Achin’ to Be They’re Blind
Side 2: Anywhere Better Than Here Asking Me Lies I’ll Be You I Won’t Rock N Roll Ghost Darlin’ One

I haven’t listened to this album since the early 90’s, so putting it on the table was a bit like stepping into the wayback machine.  From the opening few notes of Talent Show, the songs were all familiar too me, but not distinctly memorable.  In fact, listening to this album was very much like having a prolonged and somewhat irritating attack of déjà vu, in that I had this strong sense I had heard it and enjoyed it sometime in the past, but I couldn’t actually remember doing so.

By the time I was near the end of side 1 I began to more fully realize why, and after the second song on side 2 it was clear.  This album is a perfect reflection of an aimless and sullen 25 year old unsure of where their life is going and unwilling to actually take any action or responsibility.  There is a level of maturity in the music, but the lyrics in particular are almost completely void of experience and understanding needed to properly place it into any real context.  Just like the generation from which it came and to whom it’s directed, Don’t Tell A Soul drips with the affected ennui and nihilism so common among young adults who still have the residue of the certainty and arrogant ignorance of their adolescence, and who are more than willing to wallow in artificial trauma while deluding themselves that it's a form of expressing a genuine pain (rather than pure narcissistic indulgence).  It’s a perfect reflection of the bored, uninspired, self-pity of Gen X circa 1989,   exemplified in the half-sung, half-mumbled chorus of We’ll Inherit the Earth:

We’ll inherit the earth / but we don’t want it
Laid our claim at birth / but we deny it

Wow.  Is that pathetic or what.

When I was 25 this album seemed deep and insightful.  Today it seems like the silly whinging of an annoying millennial.  I guess that means they really aren't any worse than we were.

Up next: All Hail the Lizard King!