You know it's a screwy alternative-music world when a lifelong iconoclast and maverick craftsman like Paul Westerberg is considered classic rock – too much of a ruffian for VH1 but too long in the tooth for the Buzz Bin. Which sucks, because there isn't much on a Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls or Everclear record that Westerberg didn't do earlier (and often better) with the Replacements, and because his style of roughed-up pop and vinegary lyric romanticism has gotten smarter, not softer, with middle age. What Eventually lacks in the snort and crunch of arrested adolescence, it makes up for with a subtler sting.

With its tart blend of folk-rock jangle and garagelike guitar crackle, and the bruised resignation in Westerberg's voice, "These Are the Days" is the kind of sadness you can sink into, closer in construct and clarity to the bittersweet ideal of vintage Big Star than most anything in the old 'Mats canon. In "MamaDaddyDid," Westerberg hangs deep feelings of childhood rejection and stubborn emotional lockout on a slender melody and lacy strumming, but negotiates the balance between the sweet and steely to exquisite, discomfiting effect.

Older, wiser and sober, Westerberg has not entirely outgrown bar-band overkill. There are periodic outbursts of the old jump 'n' bite like "Century," which is the kind of beer-blast introspection that critics would fall all over if it was on a Wilco or Jayhawks album. And that's Tommy Stinson of the 'Mats on bass and flatulent trombone in the goofy, upbeat "Trumpet Clip." But muted volume suits much of the hurt and pathos here – like the dust-broom swish of the drums in "Hide n Seekin'" and the risky but moving mix of Elton John-ish sentimentality and harsh loss in "Good Day," a simple, sad song for the late Replacement Bob Stinson.

While hardly a return to the howling form of Westerberg's youth, this is a record of real poignance and often deep waters. He may be stuck in the same weird limbo as Elvis Costello – taken for granted as a crucial influence but generally considered past his prime – but Eventually proves that Westerberg deserves better. (RS 733)

DAVID FRICKE