It's hard to take Rick Astley's musical emancipation seriously. Free, his third album and the first one recorded outside what his promotional bio calls "the Stock Aitken Waterman production compound" (i.e., the team that gave him back-to-back Number One disco hits in 1987), features a new Rick who has literally and figuratively let his pompadour down. Leaving Stock Aitken's stock rhythms behind in favor of middle-of-the-road pop, Astley has re-created himself as a lite crooner in the mode of Michael McDonald and James Ingram. The results are at times hilarious, especially when Astley delivers lyrics like "Oh, but the heart is a wondrous thing/Surviving the thunder, outlasting the rain," from "In the Name of Love," written by none other than Michael McDonald, and "You light up my night and day/You bring on the sunshine," from "Wonderful You," an Astley original that borrows heavily from "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman."

Liberated from the SA&W music factory, Astley rounded up numerous Brit popsters for this effort. Rob Fisher (Climie Fisher) and Mark King (Level 42) each co-wrote two tunes with Astley (Fisher's responsible for the overwrought single "Cry for Help"), and Elton John sat in on piano for the album's last two tracks. Anyone who thinks John and Astley make strange bedfellows should listen to "Behind the Smile," a tear-jerker that soars on the strength of the Rocker Man's plaintive piano amid a string arrangement by Ann Dudley, from Art of Noise.

However, most of Free borders on unintended parody. Astley doesn't have the talent – his vocal range is limited to baritone, and he isn't much of a songwriter – to command our undivided attention. "Feels like time to break the chains," he sings on "Move Right Out." Astley did, then cuffed himself to a pop style that has been thoroughly mined. Free is as limited as his previous albums – Astley just found another musical ball and chain to drag around. (RS 605)

STEVE BLOOM