Kevin Bronson on February 17th, 2010

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When does a flashback feel like a step forward? When a new album from Bettie Serveert lands in your mailbox. The Dutch indie-rockers (the name translates to “Bettie Served” and is an homage to Dutch tennis great Betty Stove) carved out a space on my shelves with three great releases on Matador from 1992 to ’97. Their subsequent work, while good, didn’t quite match the whip-smart urgency or the subversive sweetness of those albums, “Palomine,” “Lamprey” and “Dust Bunnies.” But now frontwoman Carol van Dyk and mates are rumbling into middle age with “Pharmacy of Love” (due March 23), and it’s just the right medicine: jagged tunes and ragged emotions. Oh that the rest of the Class of 1992 should age so gracefully.

||| Download: Bettie Serveert, “Deny All”

||| Watch: The video for “Deny All”