Best known and loved as primary writer for the legendary 80s rock band The Replacements, who imploded in the early 90s, Paul Westerberg has released numerous low key solo albums since then, all of which maintain brand reliability in terms of quality one expects from a talent such as this.

His trajectory from brash, angsty youth, thrash-punk to angsty elder, salt-of-the-earth erudition is remarkable and well documented. Even the earliest days of his youthful, drunken rock and roll rebellion were betrayed by a strikingly precocious ability to produce sensitive and profoundly empathetic character sketches of the desperate, the oppressed, the misunderstood, and those on the fringes of society. Somehow simultaneously reaching the literary and artistic heights of “Gary’s Got a Boner”.

Once solo, and generally less intoxicated, he was better able to express that emotional fragility, and yet his coarse vocal style and fuzzy guitar attack paired with generally low frills production belie his natural inclination to always be the outcast, uninvited, whether it be among polite company or the top 40 charts.

His uniquely stunning ability to cram wit, intelligence and emotion within the rather confining basic elements of rock and roll positions his extensive and impressive oeuvre as one of the most remarkable achievements in modern music. To paraphrase Will Rogers, it ain’t hagiography if it’s true…