Liam O'Maonlai, the golden-maned vocalist and songwriter who fronts Hothouse Flowers, has the kind of vision evidenced in only a few popular musicians of each generation. In performance he alternates the unchecked physical fury of a Jim Morrison with the oratorical zeal of a roadside preacher. On record he subjugates this persona to the songs themselves, which he delivers with reverent, emotional...

There is something desperately Messianic about Hothouse Flowers' third album, Songs From the Rain, as if the Irish rockers were straining to reach the same heavenly plain crossed by such holy men as Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. The album is so spiritually correct it squeaks. Thunderous with cheery sermonizing – like a Gaelic chapter of Up With People – Rain ensnares Hothouse Flowers in a...