The first Replacements album Paul Westerberg actually liked: “We’ve got to go the other direction”

After touring their 1982 EP *Stink*, The Replacements were tired of playing fast, loud punk, and Paul Westerberg said it was damaging his voice. On their second album, *Hootenanny* (1983), the band chose to explore the wider range of music they listened to, helping establish the distinctive sound and creative freedom that shaped their later work.

Recorded from late 1982, much of the album took shape in a warehouse in Brooklyn Centre, Minnesota. It mixed punk with pop, country and rock and roll, while “Within Your Reach” showed a more vulnerable side to Westerberg’s songwriting. Though he did not consider it his favourite Replacements album, he saw it as the first to define the band; it also drew attention from college radio and paved the way for 1984’s *Let It Be*.