All elegance and ennui, Warren Zevon seems a sort of rock & roll F. Scott Fitzgerald – holed up in Hollywood, he reports with sour wit on the foibles of hollow glitterati and the strange graces of fallen angels. Decidedly less worldly and jaded, the members of R.E.M. are folkie visionaries, alternately Southern Gothic mystics and dreamers of a new and greener landscape. On Hindu Love Gods, Zevon and R.E.M. surprisingly but happily collide – and the result is a rollicking party, loose, bluesy and irresistible.

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe isn't along on these sessions, so neither is his cryptic, complicated sensibility. Consequently, the three other members of R.E.M. – guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry – forgo their cunning, jingle-jangle style and come on like giddy, brawling rockers. Whether attacking the Bo Diddley-ish beat of the New Orleans classic "Junko Pardner" or the cocky stomp of Muddy Waters's "Mannish Boy," Mills and Berry have seldom sounded tougher. Buck flourishes his encyclopedic command of guitar riffs and strategies; he charges through a heavy take on Prince's "Raspberry Beret," then turns acoustically faithful on Johnny Horton's "I'm a One Woman Man."

The real revelation, though, is Zevon's singing. In tunes ranging from a Georgia Satellites cover ("Battleship Chains") to Woody Guthrie's haunting "Vigilante Man," Zevon presents a gallery of voices. Particularly convincing as a blues belter, he shines on Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues" and "Travelin' Riverside Blues," capturing the dark poetry of the songs without any irony or distance.

Hindu Love Gods, then, is hardly disposable outtakes from a session of big stars relaxing. It's real roots rocking – done by smart, delighted fans. (RS 592)

PAUL EVANS