If you were to listen to Echo and the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch, each record the band has released since reforming in 1997 has been the best they’ve made since their 1984 magnum opus, Ocean Rain. As such, if one were to take him at his word, each of those five albums has been better than the last and the band has inched ever closer to reaching the pinnacle of their prime. However, truth is, while the band certainly hasn’t tarnished its legacy, only 2001’s Flowers came anywhere near those heights, and their last record, 2009’s lackluster The Fountain, made Mac the Mouth’s boasting ring particularly hollow.

But with Meteorites (429 Records) McCulloch may have something. Produced by Youth and beginning with the brooding mid-life lament that is the title track, this album bears the kind of gravitas that’s been largely absent from the catalog of the Bunnymen mach two. Throughout, McCulloch turns the kind of plays on words that were once his specialization, bending religious allegory to his own use on “Holy Moses” and playing around phonetically on “Constantinople.” On both of those songs, McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant divine big hooks upon which they layer atmosphere and texture. As they were no doubt assisted in this task by Youth, perhaps he’s the difference, but whatever the case, Meteorites is grandiose in a way similar to past glories like “Seven Seas” and “Over the Wall.” But that grandeur is more measured now. “Lovers on the Run” surges with a mix of strings and Sergeant’s inflected guitar playing, while “New Horizons” allows McCulloch to show off his vocal prowess, only now youthful gusto has been replaced by a matured sense of self.

It’s safe to say that for however long the Bunnymen choose to continue that they will never match the glory of the first four records of their heyday. (For my money, Heaven Up Here is every bit the masterpiece as Ocean Rain.) But with Meteorites, they have proven they don’t have to in order to still make something astounding.