These days, with new rock bands liquored up on punk, big guitars usually mean little brains. But England's Catherine Wheel ally poignant and ironic songwriting with six-string sonics closer to early '70s Pink Floyd than to the Sex Pistols.

If you think that's bad, go back to the turn-of-the-'70s Floyd gems Obscured by Clouds or Meddle. The playing of Brit post-shoegazers like Spiritualized and Blur sounds bloodless in comparison – let alone that of Rotten little kids like Green Day. Or you could listen to Happy Days, an artful marriage of aggression, melody and textural adventure. This is the connection to the past that Catherine Wheel have been searching for since their 1992 American debut, Ferment.

Over that album's iron-fisted backbeat, guitarists Rob Dickinson and Brian Futter spray-painted a 3-D day-glo rainbow through songs like the android sex fantasy "Black Metallic," the cut that raised their band from cultdom. For 1993's Chrome, they threw dirt on the palette to create bitter sugar like "Crank," a spray of tuneful noise with lyrics about isolation. On Happy Days the melodies come to the fore in the warm whine of Futter's solo in "Shocking" and in Dickinson's vocals, which are full of the dynamic tics and dramatic phrasing that define a great pop singer.

"Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck" is the perfect Catherine. Wheel number. Breathy vocals, too pretty for such fanged irony, intertwine with a gently minimal guitar melody, supported by spare bass. A growling harmonica approaches, stealthy as a tiger, then slinks off. Wah-wah bleats and vaporizes. An organ sneaks around as Dickinson's ascending notes twist the title into a sing-along climax. Finally, a scream cuts the air, reminding us that this band's feedback-streaked fairy world has land mines. (RS 710)

TED DROZDOWSKI