keepers 6 (original album)
keeper avg .500
As the title suggests, the 'Mats second album added interpretations various traditional American music styles to their sugar-fueled punk, including the title song, a goofy trainwreck of 12-bar blues. The hilarious "Take Me Down To The Hospital"***** is boogie-woogie at ludicrous speed, as is "Lovelines"****, a verbatim reading from the classifieds of the local alternative paper adding a novel juxtaposition. Maybe these stylistic experiments are a result of hanging around and watching cruddy bar bands in the early 80's but this is still a punk band. "Color Me Impressed"**** and "Hayday" are the kind of pop-punk that they would be loved for as they grew to some notoriety though the mid-80's, while the more aggressive "Run It"**** and growl-y "You Lose" are pure bratty adolescent rage. The 'Mats also try dialing it back several notches on the surprisingly ambitious surf-y instrumental "Buck Hill", the minimalist electronic groove of "Within Your Reach" (performed solely by Westerberg and a harbinger of things to come ), the menacing downer trip "Willpower"****, and the plastered country of closing track "Treatment Bound"****. The slowed tempo of some of these tracks usually highlights the 'Mats intrinsic sloppiness, but by humor and enthusiasm they usually work, and these diverse approaches would gel into a more cohesive style on the masterpiece to follow, Let It Be.
The expanded edition includes alternate versions of several tracks, as well as "Bad Worker"****, Westerberg alone playing snotty acoustic blues.
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