Quarantine the Past,Domino, ****

Pavement still cast a long shadow all these years later. The band ruled 1990s indie after grunge headed for the sunset, and now that they're on the reunion trail, their sound has never been far from the action. Pavement's slack, distorted guitar lines, angular off-beam noise and, especially, Stephen Malkmus's supersmart – often inscrutable, occasionally nerdy – lyrical ruminations are still components you'll find surging through indie-rock engines today. Quarantine the Past(Pavement's first Best Of) puts flesh on such structural bones by blowing the dust off tracks that still transcend genres with beautiful, elegant, unfussy ease. They could have been contenders for bigger stages, such was the volume of perfect pop songs they produced, but instead their idiosyncracies were to define and probably limit them. Here's a reminder of all that was great about Pavement at their best.

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Download tracks:B ox Elder, Shady Lane, Cut Your Hair, Gold Soundz