In 2008 Paul Westerberg celebrated his 49th birthday with a record entitled 49:00. It was up for grabs on Internet music stores for 49 hours, it runs at around 49 minutes and the price was 49 cents. It was just one mp3 track, a mess of (possibly) 49 songs mixed, interleaved into one insane listening experience. More structured songs are mixed in with short snippets. The most shockingly, some songs end prematurely or begin from the middle. It’s maybe rough, but this record is a diamond. It’s (sadly) beautiful, it’s Paul at his wildest. Paul doesn’t just remind us here of why we love Replacements so much, he sends a convincing signal that he has a lot to say. Obviously, he will be over the hill in 2009, but this record shows that we have nothing to worry about.