On the eve of the first Echo and the Bunnymen show in nine years, band frontman Ian McCulloch sounds surprisingly cheerful -- even chatty. "Without getting too melodramatic," he said, "it's like belonging again to whatever calling I felt I had in the first place."

Indeed, the new album, "Evergreen," due July 15 on London Records, is an extension of the stark, contemplative gloom-rock pioneered by singer McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant, bassist Les Pattinson and drummer Pete De Freitas in Liverpool in the late '70s. Though their sound was ethereal, with dreamy guitar washes and pensive lyrics, it was also anchored by strong pop instincts that made the band the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed of Britain's post-punk New Wave renaissance.

The reunited band -- with drummer Michael Lee replacing De Freitas, who was killed in a car accident in 1989 -- performed in Liverpool Wednesday and begins a month of U.S. shows Saturday with a two-night run at New York's Mercury Lounge. The new album nods to classic Bunnymen fare on songs like "Nothing Lasts Forever" and "Forgiven." But the band's familiar dark, swirling guitar-driven sound is tempered with lush string arrangements, and some of the new songs sound almost uplifting on first listen. There's even a peppy ditty about baseball, albeit with a tragic ending.

"I'll always write introspectively and, hopefully, with some kind of thought attached to it, and maybe that always brings with it some sense of gloom or despondency," McCulloch explained, although his perspective may have changed a bit. "I mean, it's obviously easier to write, um -- not gloomy, not introspective, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, I've forgotten the word. Well, it's not sad, what is it? I use this word in probably every interview, but it's escaped me this time."

Melancholy?

"Yes! Melancholy. That's it. And it's easier to write a song like that than 'Surfin' USA' -- for me, anyway. Or 'Good Vibrations.' God knows how the Beach Boys managed to write all those happy songs."

Still, tracks titled "Don't Let It Get You Down" and "I'll Fly Tonight" point to a sea change for the band that inspired a generation or two of post-punk angst. (Courtney Love, Pavement and the Flaming Lips have all covered Bunneymen songs in concert.)

"Well, yes, on this album there are moments of humor and tongue-in-cheekness," McCulloch acknowledged. "But it's easier to be tongue-in-cheek than happy. And for me, songs like 'Suzanne' or 'Famous Blue Raincoat' by Leonard Cohen or 'Sisters of Mercy' by Leonard -- well, basically, a lot of Leonard Cohen songs -- they're the ones that stay with me. I'd be more inclined on a dark night to sing 'Suzanne'than I would 'Good Vibrations.'"

After the band's 1988 breakup, Sergeant and Pattinson continued on as Echo and the Bunnymen while McCulloch pursued a solo career. In 1995, McCullough and Sergeant formed Electrafixion, releasing one album in the States.

On its current tour, the band will play a mix of old and new songs with an emphasis on old Echo material.

"A lot of people are saying the new songs are better than what we used to write," McCulloch said. "People have said, 'I never really kind of dug the Bunnymen before, but I think this is fantastic, and it's very contemporary and now and valid,' and all these words that -- I dunno, I always assumed that I would be valid as long as I was writing good songs.

"But really, I don't know, because I'm as close to the old ones as I am to the new stuff. To me 'The Killing Moon' was always the best song we had. But I think 'Nothing Lasts Forever' is up there with that, and I think 'Forgiven,' is possibly better. I mean, it's like judging football teams from different decades. Who knows?"