Ian McCulloch thinks this is the best thing Echo & the Bunnymen have done since 1984's acclaimed and glorious Ocean Rain. He's overlooking at least a couple of subsequent singles, but the famously self-celebrating frontman for Liverpool's pioneering alt-rock band may otherwise be right: If it isn't these famously moody musicians' most lyrically upbeat album, it's certainly their poppiest, and maybe their most consistently catchy. It's co-produced and half co-written by John McLaughlin, a Scottish song doctor whose résumé includes UK pop acts as shameless as Busted and Five, and its sheen is undoubtedly designed to get these big-haired vets back on European radio next to their countless stylistic offspring.

Opening track "Think I Need It Too” rings with a contemporary clarity reminiscent of one such group, the Killers. It's huge but not bulky; it glides rather than lumbers thanks to this Merseyside ensemble's widely imitated other original member, guitarist Will Sergeant. "Do You Know Who I Am?” presents McCulloch at his most straightforward and swaggering, while "Shroud of Turin” — based on the singer's experience of seeing the face of Jesus during one of the band's own shows, quite naturally — shows off his alliterative if nearly nonsensical side: "I… read more »