*** 1/2 THE DELGADOS “The Great Eastern” (Beggars Banquet)

Like its spiritual kin Magnetic Fields and Belle & Sebastian, Mercury Music Prize finalists the Delgados reject veiled irony and tortured self-hatred--those twin default modes of so much modern pop--in favor of a gentler, subtler brand of psychoanalysis. The Glasgow band’s lyrics have the charged urgency of whispered confessions, while the melodies brush lightly against jagged rhythms that provide the group with its fibrillation-like pulse.

Many of the best tracks on the quartet’s third album grapple with the aftereffects of emotional abandonment. In “Thirteen Gliding Principles,” singers Alun Woodward and Emma Pollack parry back and forth like lovers who don’t know whether to split or die trying, while buzz-saw guitars ring in their ears.

But that blast of noise is an anomaly. Most of “The Great Eastern” has the meditative hum of ‘60s British folk music. It’s all violins, flutes, quiet guitars and swooning harmonies. The Delgados can voice bitter recrimination while they wallow in a velvet sea of lush tunefulness. A more gorgeous, thematically complex album you’re not likely to find any time soon.