SUMMER ALBUM ROUNDUP : ** BOSTON, “Walk On”; <i> MCA</i>

Given the never-ending swell of pomp and glory that marks Boston’s first album in eight years, you would think mastermind Tom Scholz had returned from conquering Gaul rather than from a long campaign of studio overdubbing. Punk-bred rawness and anger may prevail now in the marketplace, but this Caesar of corporate rock hasn’t changed his concept a lick.

Boston sticks with the gleaming, overstuffed, prog-rock-meets-pop-metal sound that launched it to three multiplatinum albums in the 1970s and ‘80s. On virtually every track, Scholz’s love of majesty sends massed voices and guitars soaring into orbit in the rock equivalent of a 21-gun salute. The bombast supports sugared melodies that flag down the album’s home stretch, but tracks like “Walk On,” “Surrender to Me” and “I Need Your Love” have the sing-along quality of past Boston hits.

Recording is said to have taken three years, but the hyper-romantic lyrics sound as if they were slapped together over three beers. Any band that rhymes “point of no return” with “watch the bridges burn” clearly isn’t looking for new illuminations. But, for a commercial juggernaut like Boston, that is almost beside the point. Scholz is selling reassuring, familiar, triumphant music for listeners tossed by worried times.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).