Now that Paul Westerberg is writing wistful folk-pop songs and talking about his new maturity, who will remind aging Replacements fans of the raucous, booze-addled days of yore? Westerberg's old band mate Tommy Stinson, that's who. The still young man, who first joined forces with Westerberg as a 12-year-old bassist, is now making (barely) post-adolescent guitar pop with his own band, Perfect. While the lean, brash, three-minute tunes on the quartet's debut EP, When Squirrels Play Chicken, lack the radiant craftsmanship that made the 'Mats garage rock transcendent, Perfect go a long way on scrappy charm.

As a singer, Stinson (who made his frontman debut with Bash and Pop on a 1993 LP) has a nasal, boyish voice that never seeks to ingratiate with tenderness, not even on a jangly quasi-ballad like "Miss Self Esteem." Predictably, he's at his best on more driving numbers like "Alternative Monkey," with its bang-your-head rhythm and Beastie Boysesque background ranting, and "Don't Need to Know Where," a buzzing ode to youthful cluelessness. It's appropriate – touching even – that the album includes, as a hidden track, an endearingly half-assed cover of "Crocodile Rock," Elton John and Bernie Taupin's chestnut about a guy who clings fiercely to his reckless, romantic past. (RS 741)

ELYSA GARDNER