Catherine Wheel has been putting out great albums at a steady pace for almost 10 years. You could make a strong case for them being the most underrated band in the world. In the largest sense of the genre, they fall under the heading of Alternative Brit bands--dense guitar and intense vocals, similar in some ways to Bush and Blur. But like Radiohead and Pulp, their newest album Wishville hearkens back to the classic art-rock bands of the 70s (Gabriel era Genesis and Pink Floyd). Lead Singer Rob Dickenson ranges comfortably between whispered intimacies and tortured urgency in a way that definitely reminds the listener of earlier Peter Gabriel.

Wishville marks the departure of original bassist Dave Hawes, and continues in the smoother-edged scaled down approach that characterized their previous masterwork Adam and Eve. The Wheel has done a very wise thing by stepping back off the dense, noisier sound of their earlier work, because above all they are incredible songwriters. The nine songs on Wishville, while quite accessible, are intricately crafted gems, full of knockout hooks and big resounding choruses, great lyrics that bear repeated scrutiny.

Unfortunately, Wishville isn't produced as well as it might have been, or you could put it up on the top shelf with O.K. Computer and Travis' The Man Who . . . Wishville makes you wish Nile Godrich would have been around to twist the knobs.