RETRO SOUL

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

It took Cole Porter to prove Lisa Stansfield really had soul. On Red Hot + Blue, a 1990 tribute album to Porter, she contributed a sublimely sophisticated version of Down in the Depths. The song showed off the pop-soul diva's skills as a vocal interpreter; the number also demonstrated how good she could be when her material was as strong as her sure, supple voice.

Stansfield's new album, Lisa Stansfield, is the British singer's reintroduction to American audiences (her last U.S. release, Real Love, was in 1991). "We released a [follow-up] album, but it wasn't released in the states," says Stansfield. "Nothing was going on here that it sort of fit in with." But now, with lightly talented, heavily marketed acts like the Spice Girls tearing up U.S. charts, why shouldn't Stansfield have another go?

Most of Lisa Stansfield is a slow-building, slow-burning pleasure. This is soul lite, harking back to the '70s, to Barry White, Roberta Flack and Diana Ross. The song Never, Never Gonna Give You Up evokes the throb of disco, but in a comely, cooing, classic way; Honest is a soul-baring ballad with an intimate, unadorned sound that leaves Stansfield's voice free to shimmer in the foreground; and I Cried My Last Tear, Last Night is an unabashed I-won't-get-stepped-on-in-relationships call to arms that makes its case passionately but not gratingly. Although the album is a bit polite (it could use some Aretha Franklin-esque gospel fire), it has an easygoing sweetness that's hard to deny. A welcome return.

--By Christopher John Farley