Submitted photoOld 97’s recently released their 11th album, “Most Messed Up.” Song titles include “Wasted,” “Intervention,” “Wheels Off” and “Let’s Get Drunk and Get it On.”

“MOST MESSED UP”

ATO Records

Depending on your tolerance for Rhett Miller’s pop predilections, “Most Messed Up” is either the best Old 97’s album since 2001’s sleek, catchy “Satellite Rides” or the best Old 97’s album since 1997’s blistering, brawny “Too Far to Care.”

Either way, it’s a remarkable record, top to bottom, and a welcome shot in the arm from this veteran Texas twang-rock band.

That’s not to say the Old 97’s have been terrible over the past decade. It’s just that they’ve been pretty good, and that pales in comparison to their thrilling first five albums, which — along with artists like Wilco, Whiskeytown, Robbie Fulks and Blue Mountain — helped establish the mid- to late-1990s as the heyday of alt-country.

The past year or two feels like a revival of sorts, however, with great, rootsy records released by Jason Isbell, Lydia Loveless, Sturgill Simpson and William Tyler, among others. But those are all young cats in the prime of their songwriting lives. The Old 97s are two decades and a dozen or so albums into their career, and they’ve just made one that sounds like a lost recording from their peak.

“Most Messed Up” begins with arguably its weakest track, the self-referential rock ‘n’ roll tale “Longer Than You’ve Been Alive,” which establishes Miller’s wit and the 97’s familiar sound, but is about two minutes too long.

The next track, though, sounds plucked right off of “Too Far To Care.” “Give It Time” spills over with the band’s trademarks: Ken Bethea’s solid guitar riffs that sear like the West Texas sun; drummer Philip Peeples’ urgent shuffle; bassist Murry Hammond’s pitch-perfect harmonies and Miller’s clever come-ons and irresistible melodies.

From there, the Old 97’s settle into a groove that lasts till the songs stop. “This Is the Ballad” sashays into a pint-glass-clinking singalong. “Wheels Off” and “Wasted” are pop songs with leathery Lone Star trim. “Nashville” and “The Disconnect” recall the band’s earliest twang-punk sound all grown up, as 20 years tends to do. There’s even one song, “The Ex Of All You See,” where Hammond takes lead vocals, and it soars. His songs have always been among the band’s best; Hammond is to the Old 97’s as Mike Mills was to R.E.M. But “Most Messed Up” ends with its two gnarliest songs, “Intervention” and the title track, two serrated, booze-soaked rockers that should send most of today’s new rock bands running off to the practice space. They’re a glorious way to end one of 2014’s most spirited and surprising albums.

— Ben Salmon