* * * * <i> Great Balls of Fire</i> * * * <i> Good Vibrations</i> * * <i> Maybe Baby</i> * <i> Running on Empty : </i> : dB’S: POST-MODERN PASTICHE

* * * 1/2 “THE SOUND OF MUSIC.” The dB’s. I.R.S. Formed nine years ago, New York pop quartet the dB’s has weathered some major career inconveniences on the way to recording this, its fourth and finest album. Though acclaimed by the underground rock press, the dB’s’ three previous LPs never reached the audience that probably would have supported them had they been adequately promoted.

On the first dB’s LP in three years, leader Peter Hoslapple has come up with the best batch of tunes the group has yet produced. A pop classicist whose admiration for the Beach Boys and the Beatles is immediately apparent, Holsapple mines a sensibility that’s best decribed as boyish. His songs are awash in the disarming innocence of the archetypal scruffy teen-age male, convinced he’s invincible one moment only to plummet to the depths of despair the next. Love is, of course, the drug of choice for this young man, but Hoslapple’s hapless protagonist has the bad habit of falling for the wrong girl.

Yes, we’ve heard it before, but Holsapple makes the story young again--and isn’t that what pop’s all about? He breathes new life into this venerated scenario via his post-modern approach to composing. Pastiching filched bits from a variety of pop classics, he assembles silky melodic ribbons which he then fragments with surprising twists and turns.

Expertly produced by Greg Edward (who had the good sense to leave a reckless, raggedy edge winding through the ambitious arrangements), “Sound” features guest vocals by the gifted Syd Straw, a bit of Van Dyke Parks at the piano, and Heartbreaker Benmont Tench on organ. A record of modest aims, the dB’s’ fourth isn’t Beethoven’s Fifth, but it’s a well-made album of genuine substance and heart. Here’s hoping it gets heard.