Echo and the Bunnymen, The Fountain

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 love that sweet sack that you're in/I love your saccharine,” he snarks. "Proxy” is even more playful; its pounding piano intro combines the keyboard riffs of two glam anthems — Mott the Hoople's "All the Way From Memphis” and Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain.” The album's sole slow track, "The Idolness of Gods,” is contemplative and cautionary where previous ballads were somber and foreboding. McCulloch warns against stagnation with a gentle tone that some will begrudge: This isn't the same anguished band behind Crocodiles nearly 30 years ago. But the sense of forward movement here and throughout the disc flatters McCulloch and Sergeant. While today's post-punks glance raid their history for inspiration, these Bunnies mostly look ahead.