The quiet but formidable strengths of this album will not surprise those who have read the musicians' credit on recent albums by Marianne Faithfull and Grace Jones. As a guitarist, Barry Reynolds has been a valued part of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare's Compass Point studio crew, recognizable for his spare, stinging runs. And at times – like the falling-down-the-stairs intro to this album's title cut (written by Dan Hicks) – he sounds more like a free-jazz trombonist than a veteran sessionman.

Reynolds' more pertinent credits, though, are for songwriting: in particular, "Guilt" on Faithfull's Broken English (also included here) and "I've Done It Again" on Jones' Nightclubbing. His special quality as a songwriter is his radical honesty–not the automatic preening of most "sincere" pop craftsmen, but a drive to push past easy images into something that looks long and hard at human motivations. In "Guilt," his resolutely pared-down vocabulary hits home behind Dunbar's whacks on a snare drum: "I never took from the rich/I never gave to the poor/I'm just a curious child/Tell me more...."

Whether Reynolds is depicting the understated menace borne by the Travis Bickle-style character in "Times Square," the victim of poverty in "More Money" or the stricken lovers who inhabit several songs here, his musical line drawings tend to take on a haunting life of their own. Using the Compass Point players (and guest vocalists Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt) with judicious restraint, he's opted for subtle instrumental textures. A frenetic drum machine on "Broken English" may be a misstep, and one Irish ballad is perhaps too evanescent, but overall, the LP breathes new life into the phrase "solo album." (RS 379)

FRED SCHRUERS