CD Review: Paul Westerberg's 'Besterberg'

CD Review: Paul Westerberg's 'Besterberg'

Paul Westerberg's 'Besterberg': Aidin Vaziri | Paul Westerberg has good reason to hide his face on the cover of this retrospective set. How could the man who fronted the Replacements, one of the great generation-defining pop-punk bands of the '80s, justify a solo career in the '90s built around anemic barroom rock songs even Jon Bon Jovi would find too cliched, like "Knockin' on Mine" and "Runaway Wind"? Most of the material here sounds like the theme music to "Friends" played by scrappier musicians, with the rarity "Stain Yer Blood" even having the dubious distinction of appearing on the television show's cash-in soundtrack alongside music by Barenaked Ladies and Toad the Wet Sprocket. Add to that a disastrous lack of direction that sees our hero seeking refuge in gruff, tuneless blues and you begin to wonder if a more appropriate title wouldn't have been "Worsterberg"?