Fellow Irish rockers U2 seemed to have had a bit of luck naming themselves after a spy plane, so it makes since that Bell X1 adopted the name of the plane Chuck Yaeger used to break the sound barrier in 1947. Further comparisons to U2 just seem lazy, though fans of Coldplay and even the Talking Heads (courtesy of signer Paul Noonan’s occasionally very David Byrne-esque delivery) will find much to love about Bell X1’s unerringly melodic, bittersweet pop tunes. Noonan, guitarist Dave Geraghty, bassist Dominic Phillips and keyboardist Brian Crosby (who left Bell X1 last year) spent most of the ’90s playing in the Irish band Juniper, the launching pad for solo artist Damien Rice. After Rice went off on his own to much success, the rest of the band rebooted itself as Bell X1 and made its debut with 2000’s Neither Am I, which along with 2003’s Mouth in Mouth was released only in Ireland. But 2005’s Flock took Bell X1 around the world; the Irish chart-topper was the band’s first to be released across Europe and the U.S. (though it didn’t reach these shores until 2008). In the wake of its hard-earned success, Bell X1 launched its own BellyUp label in time for the 2007 live set Tour de Flock, which debuted at No. 4 in Ireland — the highest ever for an independent release. The band’s fourth studio album, the surprisingly playful, synth-embracing Blue Lights on the Runway, was released this March.