Conventional wisdom holds that bad production ruined The Replacements' later records. But, as is often the case, conventional wisdom is wrong. That boomy, late '80s production didn't ruin those albums so much as it dated them, providing color, texture and context. Why wouldn’t you want those things on an album? Those are some of the qualities that most shape our response to music, the very characteristics that make music memorable.
If I had to guess, Graham Hunt—whose band Midnight Reruns has been compared to The Replacements so relentlessly that I always feel guilty doing it myself, even if there’s no resisting it—is probably one of those guys who prefers The Replacement’s divisive final records to the uncontroversial early ones. His new solo album Leaving Silver City (the title, presumably, a nod to his recent relocation from Milwaukee to Chicago) is spackled with the overzealous production flourishes of the late ’80s and very early ’90s that made the music of that era sound quite unlike anything else, with boxy drums crowding the space usually reserved for guitars. It’s a gambit, to be sure, but if you have any affection for pre-Nevermind alt-rock, it’ll trigger a visceral nostalgia.
You can stream the album, which was recorded with a host of Milwaukee talent including Tyler Chicorel, Justin Krol, Sam Reitman, Stephen Strupp and Dogs in Ecstasy’s Molly Rosenblum, below, via Bandcamp. Come for Hunt’s nonchalant, hangdog sense of melody and stay for his ripping cover of Marielle Allschwang’s “Dead Not Done,” which Midnight Reruns debuted at Milwaukee Record’s Local Coverage concert a few years back.
