Bar/None

Sure, The Feelies sound older on Here Before, its first album in 20 years. But what’s the problem with that? Everything about the 13-song LP from the New Jersey indie legend is exactly apiece with what always made the band so special: its patient take on the traditional form of American music that began with the Velvet Underground and spread slowly everywhere. Singer Glenn Mercer is as inscrutably committed as ever, sweet and impenetrable. Choruses jangle with a self-assured gravitas that skirt the edge of rock clichés but emerge like classic songwriting ( “Morning Comes” ). Mercer and partner songwriting Bill Million delight in out-of-the-way choruses ( “Bluer Skies” ) and untapped Moe Tucker stomps ( “On and On” ) in the basement eternal.