The Replacements是吉他歌手Paul Westerberg组织的一支独立摇滚乐队，活跃于80年代，1990年解散。外界一般把他们的曲风归类为alterntive rock（另类摇滚），有点类似于民谣与朋克的融合。 　　曾被Musician杂志誉为「80年代最后一支出色乐团」，衔接乐坛各时期风起云涌的摇滚各类潮流，为 90年代另类摇滚打出头阵，葛莱美音乐奖于1991年初设立「另类摇滚」奖项，The Replacements随即获得提名。虽然团员几经异动，然而乐团初创期年仅12岁稚龄的原始贝斯手Tommy Stinson，现已入主几经波折的摇滚大团「枪与玫瑰」之成员。担任灵魂支柱、创作要角的Paul Westerberg，在他独具个人风格的演唱/编写下，引领The Replacements走过风光十余年岁月。500强专辑Tim 　　成军于明尼苏达州明尼亚波里市的The Replacements，于1981年发行首张专辑《Sorry Ma Forget to Take Out The Trash》，将70年代如火如荼蔓延其版图至全球各地的粗糙刺耳硬核朋克音乐高能量压缩再呈现。1983年发行第二张作品《Hootenanny》，尝试从硬核噪音融入较为悦耳流行音感，同时保留那份狂热叛逆气息。1985年与主流大厂Sire签下一纸合约推出《Tim》，接续达到主流与非主流平衡，端出佳作连连之大碟，并且获得乐队本身及唱片公司所期待的商业成功。 　　专辑《Tim》在滚石杂志评出的500张历代最强专辑中排名第136位。 　　专辑始发1985年，这里收录的是2008年的加长版。 　　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, Hüsker Dü, 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.