If John Lennon were alive today, he might be like his acolyte Robyn Hitchcock, putting out a new record every couple of years and continuing to circle the same lyrical and musical obsessions. And that might not be so bad. Hitchcock's latest album, Olé! Tarantula, is one of the eccentric singer-songwriter's best in years, mainly because it sounds almost exactly like something he would've recorded two decades ago. "Museum Of Sex" has the same kind of bleating horns he used on "The Cars She Used To Drive" back in 1982, and the guitar on "Red Locust Frenzy" could've been copied straight from his "I Often Dream Of Trains." There's purity to the way Hitchcock continues to sing oddities like "Adventure Rocket Ship" and "Underground Sun," and poignancy to the way he continues to tie fantasy imagery to a sense of personal yearning. On Tarantula's best two songs, "Belltown Ramble" and "N.Y. Doll," Hitchcock even references old rockers like R.E.M. and the late Arthur Kane, as a way of keeping his curvy guitar-pop grounded firmly in rock's great continuum.