‘RAIN’ GEAR

“JUICE.” Oran (Juice) Jones. Def Jam. Not since Bobby Marchan topped the 1960 R&B; charts with his in flagrante delicto interpretation of “There Is Something on Your Mind” has there been a smash single quite like Jones’ “The Rain.” Shifting from a predictable opening cloudburst to a plaintive, minor-key melody, the song starts out like just another--albeit excellent--urbane street-corner serenade, when the satin-voiced Jones suddenly turns sharp-tongued, confronting the woman he saw walking in the rain with another man with a frighteningly deadpan string of seriocomic recriminations. However, the rest of the tunes on this New Yorker’s first album are less inspired, consisting mostly of bedroom ballads, highly reminiscent of such suite-soul stylists as the Spinners, the Delfonics, et al., and distinguished chiefly by the inclusion of a ’69 Miracles’ B-side (“Here I Go Again”) that--like the LP--seems designed with that late-night, two-glasses-of-white-wine, you-and-your-lay-dee action in mind.