Paul Westerberg – “Eventually” (1996)

September 6, 2008 at 2:30 pm (Music, Paul Westerberg, Reviews & Articles)

Written November 13, 2004…

Having been a big admirer of Paul Westerberg since 1985, when he was the leader of the late, great Replacements, I have never understood the level of criticism leveled at his solo albums….especially this album. There are many longtime fans out there who seem to slag off Eventually as being some piece of tame, lame middle of the road hackwork. Nothing can be further from the truth.
I think alot of it may be due to the raucous, drunken legacy

 of The Replacements, which is unfortunate. Nobody can be young & crazy forever. The ones who try, either die in their prime or grow to be 60 & still try to act 18, which is even worse than death. Paul Westerberg quit drinking around the time of The Replacements’ demise and began to mature. Some people never will forgive Paul for simply growing up. 
His first solo album 14 Songs was an excellent, if slightly uneven record. Eventually in my opinion is his most fully realized solo album. Every song is excellent. It’s an album I have listened to hundreds of times over the past 8 years and I still love it as much now as I did back in 1996. That’s the sign of a great, timeless album to me. And it’s an album that holds together terrifically, meaning every song follows the last one perfectly. It’s a brilliantly realized sequence of songs. Each song builds on the previous one to create a sum that is greater than its parts.
It starts off brilliantly with “These Are the Days” and continues to simply grow as it goes along.
“Love Untold” is a heartbreaking ode to two potential lovers who never get a chance to meet. Westerberg’s attention to small details is captured as perfectly here as it’s ever been. It’s those small details that has made Westerberg one of the greatest, if unfortunately underrated songwriters of his generation. He captures all the heartbreak, the angst, the joy and the passion that we all feel from time to time. He knows how to convey what we all feel inside.
“Ain’t Got Me” is another excellent song that segues beautifully into “You’ve Had it With You.” That segue always leaves me breathless. Westerberg has always left me breathless with these little kinds of details. He doesn’t need flashy guitar solos or special effects to get your attention. He does it with the little things. Just like Dylan and Springsteen and Lennon and all the great songwriters throughout the ages. It could be a clever line or a slight inflection in his voice or a little, seemingly insignificant guitar riff. It all adds up though without you even realizing it until about the 8th listen. And then it all of a sudden clicks & quietly blows you away. This album has many, many instances of this. Which is why I just can’t figure out what people seem to miss with this album. Am I hearing something they’re not?
And “You’ve Had it With You” is just as raucous & reckless & rocking as anything from his past. But never sounds like some forced return to youth. He makes it all sound so effortless. But if it were this easy to write songs of this caliber, there would be no such thing as a bad song.
“MamaDaddyDid” reveals his ambivalence towards having children & his own parents’ inability to raise him. Although I guess he had a change of heart a few years later, when he did in fact have a child.
“Hide N Seekin” is probably the type of song that his fans crucify him for. They claim he has turned into a middle-aged soft-rock sell-out. But that’s ridiculous. This is a gentle but remarkable song. And as much as I love his adolescent songs of yore, like “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out,” I will take “Hide N Seekin” any day.
One of the most touching songs of his entire career comes towards the end. “Good Day,” a piano & strings-based ballad, is a hopeful, positive ode to being alive sung with heartfelt passion. A tribute to fallen, former Mats guitarist Bob Stinson, it is surprisingly upbeat coming from a cynical guy like Westerberg. “A good day is any day that you’re alive,” is about as positive a message as has ever been written. And whenever I hear this song, it does indeed make me feel happy to be alive, no matter what kind of pain I’m experiencing. I’m happy to be alive, if for no other reason than to be able to experience beautiful music such as this. The best music should always make you feel this way. I couldn’t imagine a world without The Beatles or “Rhapsody in Blue” or Pet Sounds. I couldn’t imagine a world without Frank Sinatra singing “I’ve Got the World on a String” or “I Get Along Without You Very Well.” They are simply a part of what makes living worth all the pain & disappointment & heartache we all experience.
I don’t want to come across like some sycophantic fan but I just cannot find anything wrong with this entire album. There have been songs by Paul that just haven’t clicked with me. Many in fact. But there are none on this album. They all speak to me. Catchy, tuneful, well-written songs with clever wordplay & that mean something. And to some people who think Paul lost his sense of humour & became too “mature” and “serious,” there are plenty of funny lines on this album, especially “You’ve Had it With You” or “MamaDaddyDid.”
Paul Westerberg has always had a knack of saying the things we wish we had thought of first. And he continues to this day, although I do believe that the albums he has released since Eventually have not lived up to that album’s eternal greatness. It’s difficult to make timeless art every time out, but he continues to try. God bless him. And why he’s never become big is as big of a mystery as the Bermuda Triangle. Especially since The Goo Goo Dolls became huge by ripping off Westerberg’s entire sound & style, which doesn’t mean I’m condemning them for it. Johnny Rzeznik has actually out-Westerberg’d Paul at times. But still Westerberg should have been a star, rather than merely a cult legend. It’s one of the great injustices in rock ‘n’ roll history. But that does not take away one bit from what he has accomplished. The masses can go to hell for all I care.
This is one of those albums where everything came together all at once and is clearly a lost classic in my opinion. Being one of my all-time favorites, I recommend this album to anyone open to what it has to offer. Listen to it 50 times if you have to. I promise it will reveal all of its brilliance with time.
And for those who continue to compare it unfairly to everything that came before it, you are truly missing out. But that’s your loss.
For me right now, I can’t stop listening to this great album. And I thank God for it.

Jay Mucci