* * * * <i> Great Balls of Fire</i> * * * <i> Good Vibrations</i> * * <i> Maybe Baby</i> * <i> Running on Empty : </i> : BIG VOICE, THIN MUSIC

* * 1/2 “RAINDANCING.” Alison Moyet. Columbia. As in Moyet’s work in Yazoo (Yaz in the U.S.) and on her 1985 debut solo album “Alf,” the English singer’s big, husky voice is not served well by the settings it’s given. Like Aretha Franklin’s and Annie Lennox’s, Moyet’s voice needs-- deserves --arrangements that either match its big, glorious and soaring quality, or offset it with spacious, atmospheric backing.

While her second solo effort contains three gorgeous examples of the latter (including “Sleep Like Breathing,” written and co-produced by the duo The Lover Speaks and co-sung by its David Freeman), it has none of the former.

Instead, the record is dominated by thin, cutesy new-wave numbers--each of which would benefit from some brash brass (two trumpet solos by Herb Alpert don’t count) or gritty guitar in place of the electro-keyboard sounds that characterize the arrangements. Despite this, two of the more upbeat songs manage to survive the treatment--”Is This Love,” co-written and co-produced Jean Guiot (a pseudonym for Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart) and “Weak in the Presence of Beauty.” It looks like the blame for the album’s flaws must rest with producer Jimmy Iovine, especially as two of the three atmospheric successes were produced or co-produced by others.

Still, Moyet’s singing is terrific and her writing (she wrote or co-wrote all but one of the 10 songs, mostly dealing with hope in the face of emptiness) shows considerable maturation and increased consistency since “Alf.”