***1/2 The Saw Doctors

SONGS FROM SUN STREET

(Paradigm)

One of their early songs may be called "Me Heart Is Livin' in the Sixties Still," but this mostly-from-Galway quartet are really living in the still-more-innocent '50s, a boys' world of fast cars, fast friendships, and beautiful, unapproachable girls conveyed through the sonic language of Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, and the Everly Brothers. On this, their second US album (the first was last year's Sing a Powerful Song, also on Paradigm), they maintain their impressive consistency even as a certain '50s blandness creeps in -- perhaps because they're trying to avoid topics they and/or their label consider too Irish for American audiences. Yet their lyrics are often deceptively simple. "D'Ya Wanna Hear My Guitar" invites "Martina" to "play" and "hold" it as well. "Best of Friends" begs the question why the singer wasn't at his best friend's wedding, and where that friend is now. "Away with the Fairies" is a guy song about idealistic love and happily-ever-after; the narrator of "I'll Be on My Way" could be emigrating, facing adulthood, or dying. The girls remain unapproachable: Songs from Sun Street is actually all about growing up, or rather not growing up -- which is its weakness, but also its strength.

The good news for fans is that this is entirely new material, none of it from the Saw Docs' three Irish CDs or their numerous EPs. The bad news is what's not here: the hilarious "Pied Piper" and "F.C.A.," the infectious "Michael D. Rocking in the Dáil" (addressed to an Irish minister of culture) and "Presentation Boarder" (addressed to the girls of a local college), the touchingly altruistic "I Hope You Meet Again," and, of course, "I'd Like To Kiss the Bangles" (but was "kiss" the original verb?). Maybe next time, along with a song celebrating Galway's triumph in this year's All-Ireland Gaelic-football final.

-- Jeffrey Gantz