If eclecticism were a crime, there'd be enough evidence on Mondo Bongo to put the Boomtown Rats away for life. Like last year's The Fine Art of Surfacing, the new LP is an intoxicating mixture of pop and punk. It's an occasionally daft but always dazzling array of everything from vanilla reggae ("Banana Republic," actually a satiric poke at the Northern Ireland mess) to electro-mantra ("This Is My Room") to manic, Copacabanastyle boogie ("Please Don't Go") to rock & roll ("Straight Up").

Their courage bolstered by a series of hit singles in the U.K., the Rats indulge in some of their wildest fantasies here. Songwriter singer Bob Geldof takes a cue from Ed Sanders' Tales of Beatnik Glory for the hyperkinetic rhythm and rap of "Mood Mambo." He also has the nerve to rewrite the Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb" as a punky piece of social protest. These guys liberally and literally borrow licks, with Geldof dipping heavily into David Bowie's bag of vocal mannerisms while Beatles riffs surface in "Up All Night" (the "beep-beep" refrain of "Drive My Car") and "Go Man Go" (the orchestral coda of "Piggies").

But the band weaves its fantasies and felonies into a rich fabric of sound: lots of guitars, Johnny Fingers' army of keyboards, drums bouncing off the walls of producer Tony Visconti's heavily echoed mix. "Go Man Go" and "Hurt Hurts," both drenched with dub effects and instruments that interweave with more rhyme than reason, may be too much of a good thing. Yet when song and sound meet cute and merge right, as in "Don't Talk to Me" and "The Elephants Graveyard," the result is invigorating and whirlwind pop music shot through with rock & roll smarts.

Whatever their excesses (e.g., Geldof's occasional lyrical overreach, chronic overarranging), the Boomtown Rats dare to dive headfirst into areas that few postpunk bands have ever even contemplated. On Mondo Bongo, it's really easy to appreciate those marvelous midair leaps. (RS 344)

DAVID FRICKE