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The original albums -- "Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash" (1981), "Stink" (1982), "Hootenanny" and "Let It Be" (1984) -- were all originally released on Minneapolis-based Twin/Tone Records.
The new versions -- out July 24 on Restless Records -- have been remastered but won't contain any bonus tracks or artwork, the report said.
During a dispute with Twin/Tone, band legend has it that the group purloined their master tapes from the label's vault and tossed them into the Mississippi River -- which for years have been cited as the reason for the albums not being reissued.
But Twin/Tone founder Peter Jesperson told Rolling Stone that the label in fact had back-up copies of almost everything the group dumped in the river, and that the new versions are a dramatic sonic improvement over earlier CD editions.
After splitting with Twin/Tone, The Replacements went on to sign with Sire Records in the U.S. A two-CD memento of those years titled "All For Nothing, Nothing For All" was released, but Jesperson told Rolling Stone he has already compiled 70 hours of unreleased material for a proposed box set of the Twin/Tone years. Jesperson said the set will include the band's 1980 demo tape, which was submitted by group leader Paul Westerberg before they signed with Twin/Tone.
Among the rarities earmarked for the box set are 1981's "Junior's Got A Gun," "Off Your Pants," "Like You" and "Skip It"; the "Hootenanny"-era unreleased cuts "Don't Get Married" and "Lookin' for You"; a different version of the "Stink" track "God Damn Job"; and the "Let It Be" outtakes "Who's Gonna Take Us Alive," "Street Girl," "Look Like An Adult", and "Temptation Eyes," Rolling Stone said.