LONDON’S PRAISES FALL ON D’ARBY

Got a pencil?

Write down this name: Terence Trent D’Arby.

His debut album, “Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby,” is already a hot item in London and it is likely to be greeted with equal enthusiasm when released here Oct. 5.

But you don’t have to wait until then to check out this extraordinarily promising young singer who has been described by the enthusiastic British press as “London rock scene’s favorite adopted black American son since Jimi Hendrix.”

D’Arby--whose album photos suggest a mix of the soft, delicate features of Michael Jackson and the radical instincts of Prince--will make his U.S. concert debut with two shows Wednesday night at the Roxy.

Don’t spend much time trying to figure out what someone with Hendrix, Jackson and Prince connections is going to sound like. Just imagine a contemporary Sam Cooke.

D’Arby’s voice on “Hardline” is as silky and seductive at times as Al Green, yet as explosive in other moments as Otis Redding--to cite two singers who were also greatly influenced by Cooke, rivaled perhaps only by Ray Charles as the father of modern soul music.

“Hardline” is such a striking vocal showcase that D’Arby’s singing tends to overshadow the songs. Even after a half dozen plays of the album, you may still find it hard to remember the specifics of some of the tunes. Normally, that would be a bad sign for a songwriter.

But D’Arby’s 10 compositions aren’t just hollow backdrops for his vocal gymnastics. “If You All Get to Heaven” is wry, convincing social commentary, while “If You Let Me Stay” is a playfully enticing love song that would be ideal for Rod Stewart--yet another Cooke admirer.

“Wishing Well’ is a half-spoken, half-sung expression of romantic innocence that has the invention and swing of a Stevie Wonder number, while “Seven More Days” and “Rain” are compact exercises in modernizing the blues.

Don’t get the idea that D’Arby can do no wrong. There’s a sense of an artist trying on several stylistic coats in the album, rather than unveiling a single unique vision. There’s also a disappointly anonymous feel to much of Side 2. “Let’s Go Forward” and “Sign Your Name” are the kind of pedestrian, if commercial, pop-soul numbers that seem to forever clog the radio airwaves.

By contrast, things rebound sharply with the a cappella “As Yet Untitled”--a gospel-tinged statement about struggle and self-resolve that recalls the intensity and grace of one of Cooke’s most admired compositions, “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

Sample lyrics: I haven’t stood like a man for such a long time now/ I called on my God but he was sleeping on that day/ I guess I’ll just have to depend on me.

It’s such a show-stopping moment that you’d think D’Arby would close the record with it, but he breaks quickly into what amounts to an encore with “Who’s Loving You,” an old Smokey Robinson tune that is sung with such dazzling spirit that it’s doubtful Robinson would want to follow D’Arby on stage.

If the music alone weren’t enough to cause the media to take notice of this young newcomer, D’Arby’s apparent brash persona should intrigue most writers. It certainly has in England, where the 25-year-old New York native has been a frequent cover subject in numerous pop publications in recent months.

After setting a wildly provocative tone for a recent Melody Maker interview by declaring his album is better than the revered “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” D’Arby--who moved to London after serving in the Army in Germany--explained his outspokenness:

“All geniuses are half (bluff) and half reality. Real talent is mixing realism with bluff. Every great artist I really respect has a certain amount of bluff; sooner or later you have to be a conjurer, and conjure images. It’s very Pavlovian as well.

“If you state the obvious long enough, other people will pick up on what you’re talking about and examine it. And usually they’ll swallow it. I’m not gonna wait until I am dead (for Melody Maker) to say, ‘You know, Terence was in fact a genius.’ Why should I wait?”

CD DIGEST: Michael Jackson’s smash album, “Bad,” may have entered the album/cassette charts at No. 1 in Billboard magazine, but it took three weeks for the collection to knock the Beatles’ “White Album” out of the top spot among CDs. “It’s really remarkable,” said Bob Brownell, owner of the National Compact Disc stores in Studio City and Encino. “I thought that there might be some drop off after the initial media response (to the arrival of Beatles albums in CD) died off, but even ‘Yellow Submarine,” has sold well. It seems a lot of people are going after the entire collection.” Capitol Records, which released “Magical Mystery Tour” CD this week (the first of the Beatles CDs to be released with the original American song lineup and packaging rather than the British packaging), will release the Beatles’ final two studio efforts--”Abbey Road” and “Let It Be”--on Oct. 20.

LIVE ACTION: David Bowie returns with his “Glass Spider” tour on Oct. 13 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Tickets go on sale today at 10 a.m. . . . Tickets go on sale Sunday for Eddie Murphy’s “concert tour” Nov. 9 at the Forum, while tickets will be available Monday for an Oct. 27 benefit (for American Indian activist Leonard Peltier) at the Pacific Amphitheatre featuring Willie Nelson, Joni Mitchell and Kris Kristofferson. . . . Tickets go on sale today for two Universal Amphitheatre shows: Jose Jose on Oct. 31-Nov. 1 and Roger Whittaker, Nov. 29. . . . the Circle Jerks will be at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Oct. 10. . . . The Divinyls concerts scheduled for Wednesday at the Coach House and Thursday at the Roxy have been cancelled.