Even the demos they cut as a three-piece show how playful they could be the two versions of Westerberg’s anti-TV screed “Kick It In” demonstrate how they could give a song a facelift on a whim, playing it straight on the first demo and adding bongos and more guitar textures to the second.

These recordings all have a raw, intimate quality that sounded polished on the LP. Eight of the tracks feature some of Stinson’s last recordings with the band, and his whiplash snarls on “I.O.U.,” rockabilly shredding “Time Is Killing Us,” and tasteful accents on “Valentine” show what the album could have been. The most interesting stuff here is in the Blackberry Way Demos, some of which came out on a previous expanded edition of the album. The Replacements recorded a lot of music around Pleased to Meet Me, much of which came out on various singles and compilations, as well as demos, alternate versions of songs, and tunes that for whatever reason were forgotten in the back of the beer fridge.

This new box set shows how the album could have been even better. In spite of some über-Eighties, ultra-reverberated production (which still sounds better than their next album, Don’t Tell a Soul), the record was the band’s last moment of greatness.

They lost some of their danger, recording the very produced LP as a trio with a supporting cast of thousands, yet still managed to cough up two all-time classics - the beat-skipping “Alex Chilton” on which you can hear Westerberg exuberantly catching his breath and the mellow love letter “Can’t Hardly Wait.” They also recorded a handful of almost classics (“Skyway,” “IOU”), and some tongue-in-cheek head scratchers (the faux-jazzy “Nightclub Jitters” and what might be the Replacements band diary, “I Don’t Know”). But sometime after recording their beloved Tim album, Paul Westerberg decided they ought to grow up a little, the group parted ways with founding guitarist Bob Stinson, and the ‘Mats became self-aware.

The band’s previous five LPs were snarky slacker masterpieces full of chintzy songs about hating music ’cause it’s got too many notes, ironic Kiss covers, and the occasional tender ballad, and their concerts were more like drunken hootenannies - all of this sloppiness was what won them their legend. Pleased to Meet Me was the sound of the Replacements trying for once.

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