Teenage Fanclub, at WCL Tuesday, greets middle age with grace and good music

The year 1991 is remembered as the "Year Punk Broke," to borrow the title of a documentary about the dawn of the alternative-rock era. But even as

Nevermind

was climbing the charts, Spin magazine - which styled itself as Rolling Stone's younger, hipper brother - picked Teenage Fanclub's

Bandwagonesque

as its album of the year.

In retrospect, it's hard to justify placing the Scottish group's collection of fuzzed-out, lushly harmonized pop songs above Nirvana's landmark, let alone A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, or De La Soul Is Dead. But as it turns out, while their contemporaries were peaking, Teenage Fanclub was just warming up.

"We had a great time touring Bandwagonesque. It was absolutely insane," recalls guitarist Norman Blake, one of three singer-songwriters in the band, which performs Tuesday at World Café Live. "But my best experiences and memories are from the later albums, where we were hitting our stride, and we had a better idea of what we were all about."

Although the band's output has slowed in the 21st century - Here, released in September, is only their third album since 2002 - the core trio of Blake, Gerard Love, and Raymond McGinley has remained intact, even though Blake now lives in Ontario and his mates are in Glasgow. And though they're not averse to playing the hits, they don't dwell on the past: Bandwagonesque's silver jubilee has passed without a tricked-out reissue or a full album performance.

"I think we've always felt as though we are a contemporary band," Blake says. "We've never broken up. It's not as though we are coming back after a lot of years off, so we kind of feel justified in a way, in playing our new songs, because we are a going concern."

As the band members have gotten older and raised families, that concern has gone at a more leisurely pace: The basic tracks for Here were laid down more than three years ago, and the album sat finished for more than a year waiting for an open spot in Merge Records' release calendar.

"That was our fault," Blake admits. "We were late delivering the record, and we had a meeting and agreed, 'Let's all wait and do this properly.' "

The songs have grown more leisurely, as well, acquiring a relaxed ease that belies their immaculate craft. Whereas recording sessions used to begin with dozens of tunes, Blake says, they now start with a handful apiece, polishing gems rather than throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Listened to as a group, the four songs Blake wrote for Here constitute a subliminal suite addressed to a female subject in the grips of what sounds like a prolonged depression. The lyrics, which Blake says are drawn from his own life, call to someone "at the edge of the night." The music offers a ray of light, though it's tinged with the knowledge that not everything works out as planned. "I'm in Love" isn't about the rush of a new romance but the warm glow of an old one, whose most heartfelt promise is, "We will fade into history."

We all fade eventually, and you can rage against the dying of the light or go with grace. The members of Teenage Fanclub are taking the latter course, keeping their own counsel and moving at their own speed. "We all do things when we feel that we are ready to do them and not before," Blake says. "I guess it's just the way this band works."

Teenage Fanclub: 8 p.m. Tuesday, with Sam Evian, at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. Tickets: $20-$25. Information: 215-222-1400 or www.worldcafelive.com