Recently I've made the rounds listening to some albums that have been sitting on the shelf (so to speak--they're on my iPod) for some time. One is I'm the Man by Joe Jackson, released in the fall of 1979. Jackson's genius is even more evident now, after the surge of punk rock in the 1990s. "On Your Radio" hints at a proto-punk flavor while featuring piano seamlessly planted in a mix of rock and jazz. Jackson also manages to hint at jazz with hard-edged guitars at the end of the title track's bridge. Anyone that likes '90s rock or punk, from Green Day to Jane's Addiction, should have this album and appreciate its brilliance.

Do the Collapse, by Guided by Voices, is twenty years younger, but still classic melodic punk-ish rock. It's impossible not to love the sugary "Teenage FBI" as soon as you hear it; "Optical Hopscotch" is somewhat more challenging but still moves along nicely. "Hold on Hope" tones down the pace, with soft vocals over an acoustic guitar bed, without being lethargic.

Finally, Stranger than Fiction by Bad Religion (1994) continues to represent a pinnacle of intelligence in seemingly endless sea of one-hit 90s punk songs. "Infected" is the most widely-known song from this album, but "Leave Mine to Me" turns up the speed, and "21st Century (Digital Boy)" is visionary ("I'm a 21st century digital boy/ I don't know how to read, but I've got a lot of toys").

New music is great. Old music rediscovered, with the benefit of perspective, is often even better.