Track Listing

1. Dyslexic Heart
2. Knockin' On Mine
3. World Class Fad
4. Runaway Wind
5. Things
6. Seein' Her
7. Man Without Ties
8. Star Is Bored
9. Stain Yer Blood
10. Love Untold
11. Once Around The Weekend
12. Angels Walk
13. It's A Wonderful Lie
14. Lookin' Out Forever
15. Nowhere Man
16. High Time Grandpa Boy
17. Let The Bad Times Roll
18. What A Day (For A Night)
19. All That I Had
20. C'mon C'mon C'mon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57788 in Music
• Released on: 2005-05-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

CD Description
Destined to live in the shadow of his former band, the legendary Replacements, Minnesota singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg remained undaunted in embarking on his solo career in the early 1990s. While a number of initial Westerberg singles wouldn't have sounded out of place on the last few Replacements albums--most notably the pop-perfect "Dyslexic Heart" and the Stonesy "Knockin on Mine"--later efforts revealed a different approach. On the spare, emotive "It's a Wonderful Lie" and his aching rendition of the Beatles' "Nowhere Man", Westerberg dispenses with percussion entirely, while on "Let the Bad Times Roll" and "What a Day (For a Night)", he handles most instruments (including drums) himself, for a charmingly ramshackle effect. The cheekily named collection BESTERBERG features all of the aforementioned songs, along with a handful of non-album tracks. Fans will enjoy Westerberg's wrysong commentary in the liner notes ("at this rate a hit song would embarrass me"), and newcomers will find an ideal starting point for exploring his underrated solo outings.

Customer Reviews

Quality Songwriting.
Besterberg as the name suggests is a best-of from Minneapolis based former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg and as such is worthy of your time and attention.
Besterberg gathers together tracks from over a decade of solo releases from a great performer that has the happy knack of penning brilliant songs. The music is often rough and ready blue-collar rock with occasional moments of acoustic respite but has a huge emotional punch, a great sarcastic sense of humour and some real vulnerability to it. The tunes are memorable and always played with a rare crossbreed of tasteful restraint and spikiness. The lyrics are amongst the finest you'll ever hear, addressing the minutiae of everyday life and the "big" themes of love and depth with equal aplomb, perfectly capturing things you have though or felt in a snappy phrase. His songwriting can illicit a wry smile and a broken heart sometimes in the same tune.
Highlights include the classic "Dyslexic Heart" which may be familiar to some from the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe's early 90's Grunge Romantic Comedy "Singles", "World Class Fad", the melancholic "Love Untold" and the anthem for the single man "Man Without Ties" but you'd be hard pushed to find a track on here that after a few listens doesn't offer up something special. Even an acoustic cover of The Beatles "Nowhere Man" acquires a completely different feel with Westerberg's emotive voice at the helm.
Buy this and if you like it, as well as checking out his solo CD back catalogue consider buying the DVD "Come Feel Me Tremble" to see some great live performances and studio footage of the master at work and if you don't already have any Replacements records buy "Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?" -their Best Of CD which contains more examples of his songwriting brilliance in a more conventional alternative rock/punk/grunge style.

The Man Is A Genius!
This 20 song set works best as an introduction to the solo works of Paul Westerberg rather than an actual best of. As the man's had no actual hit records you've got a selection of album tracks, soundtrack efforts and unreleased material here that may well be phenomenal but isn't comprehensive. You see Paul Westerberg is arguably the world's greatest, living songwriter and while Dylan can paint pictures in a verse and Springsteen can cast a cinematic spell in a line or two, Westerberg can shatter your heart with a word or phrase. A true "Besterberg would be a double cd with his essential moments on the first disc and the second filled with the rare gems and outtakes. But hey, you probably have to be an artist with mass appeal to get that kind of treatment. For most mortals being the singer/songwriter with The Replacements would be enough for one lifetime, but not for Paul. Although his solo stuff is more restrained than the his previous bands output, it is often just as rich and rewarding. He crams his tunes with feelings of frustration, loss, hope, humour and love. After all these years Westerberg remains wild & lethal, so start here and then go and buy the albums.

Not his best - but far better than almost everyone else!
This is a great CD, even with so many omissions.

It isn't really the "best of Paul Westerberg" as it states on the cover. It's 50% an attempt at a "Best of" and 50% rarities.

Having said that, it's still a great CD.

The re-mastered sound particuarly benefits the "Basement Years" tracks; High Time, Let the Bad Times Roll & What a Day for a Night. In fact it's great to hear his material being produced properly again.

I can't quite understand how First Glimmer, These are the Days and The Best Thing That Never Happened, didn't make the cut.

But it's still a great CD!