Pavement

The group's debut from '92 was an invigorating mixture of post-punk scratch, snarling pop smarts and lyrics that read like the post-graduate's Junior Jumble. Its scattershot nature kick-started dozens of copycat bands and almost made Lo-Fi a household word -- need we mention it was of the decade's best records?

Though no outsider wants to believe it, they're not just the latest scruffy rumor. And though no insider wants to believe it, they're more well-schooled than inspired--skilled, gifted, of enduring artistic value, condensing a decade of indie thrashing about into a two-year recording career that takes off with their debut album. Always good at both tune and noise, they sacrifice you-know-what for you-know-what now that they're thinking about quitting their day jobs, and as you'd expect, the content is formal: noise doesn't give up without a fight, often it fights hard, sometimes it fights dirty, and tune digs where it's coming from. Yielding a message complex enough to offer hope that the lyrics--more bemused than enraged, more depressive than despairing--will catch up. (Grade - A)