With The Colourfield's 1985 debut album, Virgins and Philistines, Terry Hall failed to live up to his pedigree as a former member of the exhilarating 2-Tone band the Specials and its more morose (but still appealing) spinoff, Fun Boy Three. On this follow-up, though, Hall has actually surpassed those groups, proving himself to be – like the Cure's Robert Smith – a master at juxtaposing the dark and the light. Throughout Deception, Hall and his partner, Toby Lyons, walk the razor's edge dividing joy and despair as neatly as they alternate verses of haunting Middle Eastern modalities with a chipper Western chorus on the opening song, "Badlands."

Examples of this duality abound. Such disturbing lines as "Nothing is enough/In a world without love" (in "From Dawn to Distraction") and "Oh how I wish I loved the human race/Oh how I wish I had a pretty face" (in "Digging It Deep") are harnessed to bright, soaring pop music.

Yet the album is never simply a matter of up tunes with down words. On the gorgeous ballad "Miss Texas 1967," Hall examines the sadness of fading beauty with a movingly complex mix of sympathetic emotions. Then on "Goodbye Sun Valley," which sports an arrangement that sounds like a dance with Death in an English music hall, he flips the coin and vows never to become a victim of superficial standards. Both songs are perfect complements for the brilliant cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Running Away" (featuring Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears on guitar), which literally laughs at those who retreat from life's problems.

Hall sings all this in a voice that has evolved into an expressive instrument, and producer Richard Gottehrer, who has worked with Blondie and the Go-Go's (Hall co-wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed" and recorded it with Fun Boy Three), has provided a stunning array of textures. Despite the generally somber hues of the lyrics, this is definitely an album meant to be enjoyed. In fact, the percolating "Heart of America" and the version of the Monkees' "She" are pure pleasure. (RS 500)

STEVE HOCHMAN