Galaxie 500 started at Harvard in the late '80s and shimmered brightly for a couple of years before splitting up. Today, their debut album, captures a low-speed collision between the Velvet Underground and Big Star, with original gems like "Temperature's Rising" and "Tugboat," plus a haunting version of Jonathan Richman's "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste." Pick it up alone or as part of the box-set retrospective of the band's sadly short career.

Harold Check