Paul Westerberg gets random

By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 4, 2008 at 6 p.m.

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Paul Westerberg has released a 44-minute MP3 with "sloppy brilliance."

Paul Westerberg says he's never gone on the Internet in his life. So forgive fans for being taken off guard when, out of the blue, he releases one album-length 44-minute MP3 of sloppy brilliance for 49 cents.

He calls it 49:00, even though it falls five minutes short of that mark. Fans are blown away at the scope and suddenness of it, but also by the music, which is easily some of his catchiest work since his criminally underrated 1999 release Suicaine Gratifaction.

It's out there with no explanation, no detail. There aren't even song titles, leaving fans to debate what to call the tunes (we've used their guesses) or even the number of songs on the album, given that they're mashed up, some are just snippets, and at times they play over each other.

One wonders how this would sound as a polished studio album. But the ragged edges, odd mash-ups and segues, recorded in Westerberg's basement, give it a seamless charm. You know, like albums used to have, rather than a calculated construct of individual tracks.

Devil Raised a Good Boy is an urgent, growling guitar rocker - Alex Chilton with a harder edge and darker lyrics. Everyone's Stupid is just as fun as its title sounds as he sings "everyone's stupid / even my friends" while acknowledging that he's "practically happy ... whatever that's worth." Kentucky Riser is a breezy ballad accented with some sweet guitar leads.

It's an album filled with introspection, brought to the fore by songs like the plaintive Something in My Life is Missing.

When he's bored in the studio he does covers, many of which have been released on various projects (Nowhere Man, Positively Fourth Street). Here he combines snippets of them, ranging from Hello Goodbye to Rocket Man and a version of I Think I Love You that he manages to (barely) save from cheesiness.

The format can be annoying - fans are already excising individual songs to listen to them repeatedly. It's not unique to Westerberg; Prince released his Lovesexy CD as one frustratingly long track two decades ago. But new Westerberg is always welcome under any circumstances.

brownm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2674

Paul Westerberg

49:00

TuneCore/Amazon

Grade: A

OTHER NEW CDS

* Randy Newman: Harps and Angels

* Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst

* Trapt: Only Through the Pain

NEXT WEEK

* The Jonas Brothers: A Little Bit Longer

* David Sanborn: Here and Gone

* New Kids on the Block: Greatest Hits

• August 5, 2008

  2:53 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Mark Brown writes:

  ...and I hope all fans downloaded their versions early, as suddenly 49:00 is unavailable. Finding out from Westerberg's management what the problem might be.

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