Three heavy hitters in Minnesota music — Prince, the Replacements and Hüsker Dü — have new deluxe editions coming to stores and streaming.
Each takes a look back to a key, early career moment in the careers of the musicians who remain influential to this day.
Two of the impending releases have fans grabbing for their wallets, while the third has others wondering who is making the decisions regarding the legacy of one of the state’s biggest musical exports.
Here’s a look at what’s on tap.
‘1985: The Miracle Year’
Who: Bob Mould was a Macalester College freshman when he met Grant Hart, a clerk at St. Paul’s Cheapo Records in 1978. The pair bonded over a shared love of the Ramones and formed Hüsker Dü with Greg Norton, who knew Hart through the record store.
By 1980, the trio was playing clubs in the metro and building an audience with their take on hardcore punk rock, a genre that was starting to emerge across the country. They signed a deal with California indie label SST, which released the band’s “Metal Circus” EP in 1983. By that time, Mould and Hart began dabbling in more melodic songwriting, which spiked interest in the band at college radio stations around the country.
After issuing several more records through SST, including the ambitious double album “Zen Arcade,” the group jumped ship for a contract with Warner Bros. that led to two more releases, “Candy Apple Grey” and “Warehouse: Songs and Stories.” But by the end of 1987, a host of issues including substance abuse led to the end of the band.
A full Jan. 1985 Husker Du concert, recorded at First Avenue in Minneapolis, anchors the upcoming box set “1985: The Miracle Year,” due out Nov. 7, 2025. (Courtesy of the Numero Group)
What: As its title suggests, “1985: The Miracle Year” focuses on an important year in Hüsker Dü’s history, when they were bursting with creativity in the studio and honing their storied live act.
The latter is the focus of “1985,” which features a newly restored concert recorded on Jan. 30, 1985, in front of a sold-out crowd at First Avenue. The set list featured songs from their then-new third studio album “New Day Rising” along with five numbers that would appear on “Flip Your Wig,” which hit stores later that year.
The 23-song set also includes covers of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” (with guest Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum) and “Ticket To Ride, ” the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” and “Love Is All Around,” the theme song to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” An additional 20 live tracks recorded at various tour stops that year and a 36-page book complete the package.
When: The four LP set is due out Nov. 7.
‘Let It Be’
Who: The Replacements began in Minneapolis in 1978 when 19-year-old Bob Stinson gave his 11-year-old brother Tommy a bass guitar. The pair soon began playing music with Chris Mars, a high school dropout who started on guitar before switching to drums. Paul Westerberg happened to hear the band rehearsing at the Stinsons’ home and eventually convinced them to take him on as lead singer and guitarist.
In May 1980, Westerberg handed off a four-song demo tape to Peter Jesperson, the manager of the Minneapolis record store Oar Folkjokeopus and co-founder of Twin/Tone Records. The label went on to release the Replacements’ first three albums.
Like Hüsker Dü, the Replacements went on to sign with Warner Bros. via its subsidiary Sire Records. They lasted a little longer, too, issuing four more albums before calling it a day in 1991.
A newly-remastered version of the Replacements’ third album “Let It Be” will be reissued Oct. 24, 2025. It includes a host of previously unreleased material from the album’s recording sessions along with a 28-song performance recorded in Chicago in 1984. (Courtesy of Rhino Records)
What: The Replacements’ third album, 1984’s “Let It Be,” saw Westerberg and his bandmates starting to mature — as much as any of them actually did mature, anyway — and produce now-classic songs like “I Will Dare,” “Unsatisfied,” “Androgynous” and “Answering Machine.” It earned rave reviews and enough industry attention to land the band their aforementioned deal.
A 2008 reissue added six additional rarities from the era and now a further expansion brings 36 more tracks to the party, most of which have never been released. In addition to a host of other studio outtakes, the set includes “Goodnight! Go Home!,” a 28-song concert recorded in Chicago in August 1984.
Sourced from an audience tape and newly remastered, it finds the Replacements previewing songs from the not-yet-released “Let It Be,” early favorites and offbeat covers of “Help Me Rhonda/Little G.T.O.” (originally recorded by the Beach Boys and Ronny and the Daytonas) and Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough.”
When: The set will be available as four LPs and three CDs on Oct. 24.
‘Around the World in a Day’
Who: Prince Rogers Nelson famously signed with Warner Bros. at the age of 18. His contract gave him a level of creative control rare in the industry and the Purple One took advantage of it from the start.
Prince cranked out a new album each year from 1978 to 1981, earning increasingly warm critical response as well as notice for his often outrageous lyrics and attire. His 1979 single “I Wanna Be Your Lover” made it to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the bulk of his early success came from R&B radio.
His 1982 double album “1999” broke Prince to a wide audience, both here in the States and abroad. It made it to No. 7 on the albums chart and produced a trio of smashes in “Little Red Corvette,” “Delirious” and the title track.
Two years later, Prince rode that wave to superstardom thanks to his record-breaking “Purple Rain” film and soundtrack. He never matched that success, but he spent the rest of his life recording and touring right up until his tragic death from an accidental fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park home/studio in April 2016.
What: While Warner Bros. would have been more than happy to milk the success of “Purple Rain” further into 1985, Prince had his own plans. Just weeks after wrapping his 98-date “Purple Rain” tour, Prince released his seventh album, “Around the World in a Day.”
On it, Prince explored more experimental, psychedelic styles, yet still landed two songs in the Top 10 with “Raspberry Beret” and “Pop Life.”
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In the years since his death, Prince’s estate has issued deluxe expanded versions of “Purple Rain,” “1999,” “Sign o’ the Times” and “Diamonds and Pearls,” each packed with unreleased tracks and live material.
This time around, though, there’s nothing in this reissue that fans haven’t long since heard. The album has been newly remastered, but all the bonus material consists solely of previously released b-sides and remixes along with “4 The Tears In Your Eyes,” a song Prince donated to the “We Are The World” album.
Prince fans immediately expressed disappointment about the lack of material from his fabled Vault, but are holding out hopes for the release of the long-rumored “Parade” deluxe edition.
When: The two CD and three LP sets arrive on Nov. 21. (The vinyl version drops three remixes from the CD.)
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