Camper Van Beethoven, the longtime champ of college radio, has burst out of the indie underground with a strong major-label debut that boasts better songs and a better sound than ever before. Even if the pristine production, by Dennis Herring (Timbuk 3, Lords of the New Church), spiffs things up a bit, the band still sounds like a house party at the United Nations.

Though suggestions of Greek music, country, fusion, reggae, heavy metal and folk rock abound on this record, the Campers' bread and butter is a gently bouncing ska beat on which they hang their various stylistic hats. But their music is more than just a string of hyphenated labels; they make truly postmodern recombinant rock.

The driving "Devil Song" sports an odd Arabian guitar line, and it twirls like a dervish straight into "One of These Days," a stately reggaeish song on which Jonathan Segel's distinctive violin weaves in and out of a haunting melody. "Change Your Mind" is a cute ditty that sounds tailor-made for a Ringo Starr album. In "Turquoise Jewelry," above a big horn boogie, lead singer David Lowery tells a hippie throwback, "Take off that jumpsuit/You look like Grace Slick."

Like the Campers' previous albums, this one is tied together by occasional instrumentals ("Eye of Fatima, Pt. 2," "Waka," "The Fool"). "The Fool," which sounds like a cross between the Cure and a James Bond theme, sets up the last two songs, which are brilliant. "Tania" is a wistful bit of Balkan reggae, with Segel's mandolin trailing the violin melody. An ironic love song to Patty Hearst (she's the "sweetheart" of the album's title), it's an evocative treat for those of us who grew up in the mid-Seventies and were bored shitless. "Life Is Grand" thumbs its' nose at the nihilism of the punk generation. Lowery sings, "And life is grand/And I will say this at the risk of falling from favor/With those of you/Who have appointed yourselves/To expect us to say something darker." This sweet closer draws a blueprint for a new kind of cool.

The Campers are an important new band. Here's wishing them a long, strange trip. (RS 532)

MICHAEL AZERRAD