If ever there was a band that seemed headed for a sophomore slump, it was 'Til Tuesday. Sure, their 1985 debut, Voices Carry, had its icy charms, not the least of which was the wonderfully eerie title track, but there was also something vaguely unconvincing about the group's ode to angst. The suffering of lead singer and songwriter Aimee Mann seemed almost clinical, and as a result, the record felt cold and more than a tad forbidding. (Come on, Aimee, how could somebody who looks so good feel so alienated?) The very pleasant surprise, then, is that Welcome Home is one giant and altogether confident step forward. Welcome Home is a more intimate, substantial and warm record than we had any right to expect.

"Living on silence/Living by the book/You get it to a science/Of living on one good look," Mann sings on the opening cut, "What About Love," as if announcing her intention to move on from such a limited aim. That song comes across as an astute refinement of Voices Carry's hit formula: moody riffs repeated hypnotically behind Mann's sultry, slightly Chrissie Hynde-like singing. But it's the second song on side one that shows off 'Til Tuesday's new stuff. With its countryish lilt, "Coming Up Close" is the most honest Mann has ever sounded; she even seems aware of her gloomy Gus image ("Out in the distance I could hear some people laughing/I felt my heart beat back a weekend's worth of sadness"). On tracks like "Coming Up Close" or the heartbreakingly pretty "David Denies," Mann's songwriting is much less precious than it was on Voices Carry – one finally gets a sense of the person behind all that pain.

Amid all this Mann worship, let's not forget that 'Til Tuesday has developed into an awfully adept rock band, capable of hitting to all musical fields. Lead guitarist Robert Holmes, for example, gets a chance to demonstrate much more personality than he did on Voices Carry. Part of the credit for how wonderful everyone sounds on Welcome Home must go to producer Rhett Davies, best known for his work with Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry. Always a master of audio ambiance, Davies gets to work with more hooks on this one album than he would have in a decade with Roxy. The result of the 'Til Tuesday-Davies collaboration is one of the best surprises of 1986. Here's looking forward to 'Til Tuesday's junior year. (RS 486)

DAVID WILD