When this album came out in 1987, critics started falling over themselves. It seemed like the Replacements had everything: serious songwriting chops, tragicomic antics, an underage bass player, and a Rimbaudian frontman. Their punkier early albums had definitely garnered attention, but Pleased to Meet Me was the one that made the critics really sit up and take notice. (It made several best-of-year and best-of-decade lists.) What brought the wider attention was the band’s move from scrappy punk rock into accomplished (though still scrappy) power pop, with tracks like the longing “Can’t Hardly Wait” and the grittily soaring “Never Mind.” By this point it was becoming clear that frontman Paul Westerberg was actually a major songwriting talent, and his solo career became an inevitability.