Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation (1998)

One third of this 18-song set is drawn from the Athens, Ga., band's first two albums: euphorically fresh music that got the punk crowd dancing and reveled in retro irony long before it hardened into a post-modern pose. The remainder of Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation is decidedly hit or miss; for every roof-rattling ''Love Shack'' there's a pretentious ''Mesopotamia.'' The two new songs are fine, but it's obvious that for the B-52's the future ain't what it used to be. B