Stink

Stink takes the hellbent hardcore of the Replacements’ debut, Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, to a seething conclusion. As if seeking to expel every ounce of anger and energy they have left, the band plays with total eradicative furor. Paul Westerberg’s throaty voice shows up scraped and hoarse, while the sound behind him has become a furnace blast. The adolescent sneer of Sorry Ma is retained in the inarticulate tantrums of “F**K School” and “God Damn Job,” whose verses cut straight to the heart of the teenage experience. “Go” is in step with the moody tone the band displayed on “Johnny’s Gonna Die” from Sorry Ma, while “Gimme Noise” and “Kids Don’t Follow” are racket-born rallying cries for disaffected youth everywhere. The album begins with an on-site recording of a hapless Minneapolis police officer attempting to send a rowdy ‘Mats audience to bed — a sound that is promptly interrupted by the slash-and-burn of Bob Stinson’s guitar and Westerberg’s anti-authority roar. The band would go on to write more eloquent anthems of frustration and alienation, but the expression was never more urgent, and the audience never closer.