Today’s Billboard has good news for Replacements fans: the band’s Twin/Tone-era output will be rereleased in remastered, expanded form on April 22:

Billboard.com

Each of the four CDs will be accompanied by rarities from that period in the band’s career. While some of the bonus cuts have been circulating among Replacements fans for over two decades, others have yet to see the light of day. The bonus cuts for their final Twin/Tone LP, Let It Be:

• “20th Century Boy”
• “Perfectly Lethal,” outtake*
• “Temptation Eyes,” outtake*
• “Answering Machine,” solo home demo*
• “Heartbeat — It’s a Lovebeat,” outtake - rough mix*
• “Sixteen Blue,” outtake - alternate vocal*

‘20th Century Boy’ was a b-side on the ‘I Will Dare EP’ (along with a hilarious Hank Williams cover). ‘Perfectly Lethal’, ‘Temptation Eyes’, and the alternate ‘Sixteen Blue’ have circulated for a long time (I think I got mine from a bootlegger in Columbus in about 1987), albeit in the form of 12th generation cassette copies and MP3s ripped from the aforementioned well-worn 12th generation cassettes. That said, they’re all excellent tracks, and fans should rejoice at the chance to hear them in a more pristine form.

‘Heartbeat — It’s a Lovebeat’ and the ‘Answering Machine’ demo are considerably rarer, and even diehard fans are likely to be hearing them for the first time. ‘Heartbeat’ doesn’t even appear on the excellent Sessionography at Foshay Tower.

There are a few outtakes from the Let It Be sessions that have been omitted from the reissue:

• Who’s Gonna Take Us Alive
• Street Girl (2 versions)
• Gary’s Got a Boner (alternate take)

Of the omitted tracks, ‘Who’s Gonna Take Us Alive’ is the strongest, with some fine Bob Stinson guitar riffs, and a very pretty acoustic 12-string bridge. ‘Street Girl’ (sometimes listed as ‘Sweet Girl’) is more of a fragment than a complete song, one take being a mere minute and a half, and both takes end in flubs before the song is complete.

Apropos to nothing, when Paul Westerberg sings ‘Temptation Eyes’, it sounds like he’s singing ‘F****ng rhubarb on my soul’, rather than ‘through my my my soul’. Also, a friend of mine swore he was singing ‘Ten cents a retard’ rather than ‘20th Century boy’ on the track of the same name.

The first CD issues of these records were absolutely horrible sounding — shrill, glassy, and sterile. Mastering is a contentious issue now (see my previous Loudness War posts), but I’m optimistic that the sound will be an improvement. Whatever the case, it’s a chance to wallow in latent adolescence and celebrate the band at their creative zenith.

H/T to Aaron Cohen for passing this along.