Ever since Tracy Chapman began her remarkable climb up the charts, there has been talk about how much she sounds like Joan Armatrading. Although the resemblance between their rich, authoritative vocals is undeniable, comparisons should stop there. Chapman's guitar-based songs are spare, emotionally direct and often spiked with trenchant political messages. Armatrading works from a broader musical palette, and her lyrics linger stubbornly on one subject: the politics of romance.

Rather than staking her claim as the godmother of this year's folk-rock heroine on The Shouting Stage, Armatrading embarks on yet another guided tour of love's perils with her usual unsentimental acuity. But she sheds the brooding tone that has occasionally threatened to drown her music in a sea of regret. For an album that deals mainly with betrayal and disillusionment, this is a surprisingly breezy-sounding piece of work.

"Living for You" and "Words" have an engagingly crisp, jazzy sound that's reminiscent of Sting's recent work. Pino Palladino's cunningly nimble bass lines and Alan Clark's expansive keyboard fills stand out particularly sharply. As a bonus, Mark Knopfler contributes exquisitely tender guitar solos on the title track and on "Did I Make You Up."

But no matter how pretty the album sounds, Armatrading is still haunted by demons of love. On the bluesy "The Devil I Know," she observes a lover's infidelity with a simmering mixture of contempt and fascination. Later, on "Did I Make You Up," she pleads with a new love to "make this feeling last," but her wistful tone makes it obvious that she understands how futile this wish is. In these songs romance is a fleeting prelude to discord and cruelty. So when Armatrading sings, "I'm living for you, baby," it sounds more like a plea for mercy than a promise of love.

Yet Armatrading proves that at least one kind of fealty does survive. For The Shouting Stage showcases an artist who is fiercely loyal to her own instincts. The result is an album that is one of her best ever, as intriguing as it is obsessively listenable. (RS 540)

DAVID KISSINGER