Bryan Adams' career has sparked ridicule and adulation for nearly twenty years now -- often simultaneously. Contrived to some and symphonic to others, prom ballads like "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" and "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?" may remain music industry punch lines for years, but they will continue to pay the singer's bills well into the millennium. Now, Adams is back with a "soulful" album designed to bury the memory of 1996's comparative commercial stiff, 18 'Til I Die, and lure hopeless romantics into a Sam Goody near you.

"The overall theme on this album [On a Day Like Today, due out October 27] is some sort of need to break out, break free of conventional thought and not be bounded by what we are told is right and wrong," Adams says about the album. "The end result is something slightly uncharacteristic, slightly confessional and unpretentious."

After carting his portable studio to Jamaica for inspiration and then back to Vancouver for final sessions at his personal Warehouse Studios, Adams, with help from producer Phil Thornalley (Natalie Imbruglia, Thompson Twins), has finally emerged -- fingers crossed -- with a new batch of tunes.

The put-up-or-shut-up title track, "On a Day Like Today," makes its radio debut this week and features fragments of the string orchestration that appears on four other album tracks, including the ethereal "Where Angels Fear To Tread." Adams says he also experimented sonically with keyboard player Phil Western, who produced the new song "If I Had You" and "added a lot to the sonic scapes of this album."

"I think orchestration adds a fantastic dimension to a piece of music, especially when arranged in the right way," Adams says about his new grandiose tunes. "It's just a way of adding dynamics to a song."

Throughout the Nineties, Adams has been a consistent shill for chick-flick soundtracks (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Three Musketeers and Don Juan DeMarco), where his monster hits of late have often appeared first. Hoping to extend his success in that realm, Adams says he wrote the song titled "Cloud #9" for Mickey Blue Eyes, a mob comedy starring Hugh Grant, due out next Valentine's Day. He also will likely contribute the new track "Where Angels Fear to Tread" to the Juliette Lewis film The Other Sister.

So even if On A Day Like Today fails to live up to past glory, Adams could conceivably launch a tour based on the expected strength of his new soundtrack contributions alone. For now, however, he won't bet his royalty checks on it.

"I'm just gonna sit this one out until I see what the record does," he says regarding a full-blown North American tour. "I'm actually starting to record another album, and I don't want to stoke up the fire just to have it rained on."

ANNI LAYNE