Dallas, Texas’ Old 97’s continue to astound. After all, they’ve been playing for 27 years with the same four members, and where some artists suffer a lull or hiccup every other album, the Old 97’s have continued to keep their stride across 11 albums. On “Twelfth” (ATO Records), the boys still know how to craft a keen tune or two. Country-tinged pop at its best, “Twelfth” opens with the percussive thumps on “The Dropouts,” a jaunty ditty that sounds so great you’ll risk that it becomes a bore by listening to it too many times. That’s just for starters, as the whole record soars with hooks that’ll stick in your head, each one more fun and irresistible than the last. On “Turn off the TV,” lead vocalist Rhett Miller sings, “Let’s go back to my room/There’s a full moon sittin’ on the church next door/There’s a sleeping bag on a hardwood floor.” Sounding simple enough, the ’97’s are loud and lively on such a doleful tune. There’s endless positivity throughout the album’s 12 tracks – so much so that the band doesn’t merely sound like a living relic. Other cuts range from young-love nostalgia (“One Year”) to a cheeky nod to one of the group’s few other still active contemporaries, the Bottle Rockets, in the form of a honky-tonk butt-kicker (“Bottle Rocket Baby”). This band is fast becoming an American institution, all the while sounding like Brit-style pop. They’ve made it through several presidential administrations; let’s see if they can add another to that list in November.

•••

Sir Paul McCartney’s recent Archive Collection has bounced a few album titles (“Tug of War,” “Pipes of Peace” to name a couple) from his solo work back into the mainstream with revamped packaging and bonus tracks. On “Flaming Pie” (Capitol), his 10th solo record, which was released in 1997, McCartney proffers up rarities and B-sides to soothe even the most erstwhile Beatle fan. Packaged as a double-CD set, or a 7-disc boxed set (which somehow never treads into overkill territory), “Pie” originally arrived on the heels of the Fab Four’s documentary series in the mid ’90s so the timing of its original release was impeccable. The new release features track-by-track commentary, shedding light on the fact that McCartney was feeling a bit nostalgic after the “Beatles Anthology,” because it reminded him of the standards that were reached with his old band’s songs. “Pie’s” opener, “The Songs We Were Singing,” was a cut culled from McCartney’s sessions with Electric Light Orchestra’s mastermind and producer Jeff Lynne. “But we always came back to the songs we we’re singing,” he croons, sounding so uncomplicated – and the track is just that. But hearing the former mop-topper reminisce about a different time when the songs were structured with such simplicity isn’t necessarily a want to go back but rather to revisit what made him such an illustrious song crafter in the first place.

“Beautiful Night” reunites McCartney with Ringo Starr on an older track that McCartney unearthed during the recording of “Pie.” The cut, a decade old, found new life with McCartney on piano and Ringo, natch’, on drums. Much like the rest of this “Pie,” there’s nothing wrong with going back for seconds.

•••

With the release of his 16th studio album, “Here on Earth” (Big Machine Records), Tim McGraw doesn’t reach any new conclusions about his downhome approach to making music, but at this point in his career, he doesn’t have to. Fifty-million record buyers can’t be wrong, right? You can check every box for a record that promises what you’d expect from McGraw: a pleasant collection that gleans a bit from everyday life. For starters, “L.A.,” is a low-tempo ode to La La Land, which offers the first of many rose-tinted conclusions on the record, as he boasts of loving the city’s infamous traffic through more than a couple of cliches. The title track finds him pondering the meaning of life, while “Sheryl Crow” sees him compare a lover to the singer on the radio: “Gonna be stuck in my head forever/I knew I’d never be the same again.” But the record starts to wain a bit before it hits its stride on “Good Taste in Women.” (McGraw, after all, is married to Faith Hill, so this song would be hard for him to mess up.) Overall, “Here on Earth” was recorded in Country Standard Time, which means you’ll have to nap through the sleepers to find the gems. Surprising and experimental, it’s not. But for diehard fans who have been waiting through COVID for some magic to light, “Here on Earth” is better than the alternative.