Silver Age by Bob Mould

Rather than turning into something new, it settles into some comforting old sounds.

Front to back, top to bottom, the record is the most charged Mould has sounded since those fruitful Sugar days, and at 52 he sounds as comfortable in his iconic alt-rock skin as ever.

Silver Age does not push boundaries back, being as it is clearly an album that finds Mould keen to explore his past as an alt-legend.

It’s a refinement of what he accomplished with Sugar, and is arguably the most consistently engaging album he’s made since Copper Blue.

For all his roots in ‘80s punk, Silver Age is an album for the digital era, which means it never lets up long enough for you to flip sides.

As a showcase of a seasoned master in his element, Silver Age's bounty of direct, distorto-pop hits measures up to Mould's gold standard.

The Silver Age is not the best record of the year, but it is certainly one of the most unpretentious and easily liked records of the year.

This is the kind of record that Bob Mould could have made in his sleep.