Since Linda Ronstadt helped resuscitate Aaron Neville's solo career by inviting him to sing on her 1989 album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind, the barrel-chested New Orleans institution has become a staple of adult-contemporary playlists. And while many fans of the Neville Brothers' harder-edged, socially conscious R&B probably wouldn't be caught dead buying one of Aaron's slickly produced easy-listening songfests, the ethereal-voiced singer has ventured more deeply into the land of Jon Secada and Amy Grant with each new solo album. But anyone who dismisses Neville's newest CD, The Tattooed Heart, without a fair listen is missing out on some of the most exultant pop music being made today.

With an angelic voice capable of reconciling spiritual opposites – wisdom and innocence, masculinity and femininity, the sacred and the profane – Neville can pretty much find the soul of any song, even one as vapid as Diane Warren's "Can't Stop My Heart From Loving You (The Rain Song)," this album's first single. Transcending the song's white-bread reggae backdrop, Neville uses that famous catch in his throat to convey the exuberance of unbridled passion.

Such is the purity of Neville's voice that he can jump from one genre to another – soul, pop, country, bluegrass – and still maintain an aura of soulfulness. On The Tattooed Heart, Neville segues effortlessly from a down-and-dirty version of Bill Withers' R&B classic "Use Me" (with some help from brothers Charles and Cyril) to a devastating cover of Kris Kristofferson's "For the Good Times." Helping Neville out on background vocals on that last track is country singer Kelly Willis, who cushions Neville's aching falsetto with a deep harmony.

Producer Steve Lindsey, who worked on Neville's last solo album as well as on Leonard Cohen's The Future, obviously has great respect for the singer's legendary status. Lindsey surrounds Neville's instrument with only the most complementary arrangements, particularly on the transcendent "Beautiful Night." With the piano and bass approximating the sound of rain, Neville floats higher and higher above the music, encouraged by Steve Cropper's electric guitar and a gospel chorus, reaching a kind of musical apotheosis by the end of the track.

Ultimately, The Tattooed Heart is easy-listening music at its most literal: It's easy to listen to because it's so damn good. Rather than capitulating to the homogenized requirements of adult-contemporary radio, Neville actually subverts the format's blandness and conservatism with music as deeply felt as the most incendiary rap or the most anarchic punk. (RS 709)

PETER GALVIN