Merge

The Chapel Hill punk lifers helped jumpstart the indie revolution of the Nineties, but unlike most of their peers, they didn't burn out or get cynical — they just waited until they had a great album's worth of songs. Their first album in nine years matches their 1994 classic Foolish, full of frantic pogo-along energy and Mac McCaughan's Fogerty-style wiseass wisdom. It's a lesson in musical and emotional commitment — knowing what you do, knowing the people you do it for, and then doing it to death. Long may they 'chunk.

• Jon Dolan's Original Review
• Rolling Stone's Best of 2010: Albums, Singles, Movies and more