Marshall Crenshaw occupies a small but special niche in modern American rock: He's a power-pop singer/songwriter. Unfortunately, with one foot in the cultish dBs/Mitch Easter camp and the other in the more mainstream John Hiatt/Freedy Johnston tradition, Crenshaw has been all but ignored by aficionados of both.

He deserves better. Crenshaw's early '80s albums for Warner Bros. were filled with soaring evocations of youthful yearning, songs that pined for lost suburban romance and sounded like Buddy Holly backed by the Pursuit of Happiness. Crenshaw's 1991 major-label adieu, Life's Too Short, was an underpromoted gem whose matchless tunes were given a turbocharged treatment by producer Ed Stasium and the powerhouse backfield of drummer Kenny Aronoff and bassist Fernando Saunders.

Now, Crenshaw is recording for the indie Razor & Tie label and living quietly in Woodstock, N.Y. Following his engaging 1994 live album, My Truck Is My Home, Crenshaw has elected to produce (and play many of the instruments on) a new studio outing that mixes his trademark Beatlesque pop with anthemic soul and barnstorming R&B covers (Dobie Gray's "The 'In' Crowd," Hy Heath's "Who Stole That Train"). New originals like "Starless Summer Sky," "Only an Hour Ago" and "What Do You Dream Of?" offer further proof, if more were needed, that Crenshaw is one of the supreme melodists of rock's last 15 years; fans of Neil Finn and the now-defunct Crowded House should investigate forthwith.

Yet Miracle of Science lacks a vital spark, mainly because Crenshaw's production is too lackluster to lift his performances much above the journeyman level. The beefy snare-drum sound of 1983's Field Day may have seemed gauche back then, but it sounds pretty rich compared with this. Somebody, please: Put this man in a studio with Mitchell Froom. (RS 743)

BARNEY HOSKYNS