**** Great Balls of Fire *** Good Vibrations ** Maybe Baby * Running on Empty : Tonio: Back to Eden

*** 1/2 TONIO K. “Notes From the Lost Civilization.” What?/A&M.; It’s safe to say this will be the best Memphis-Motown-L.A.-surf-rock album with Christian and feminist overtones by a reformed misogynist but unreformed cynic this year. “Notes” is also a unique, thoughtful overview of both rock history and the place of love in the modern world.

The album starts where most contemporary rock entries leave off: the observation that “It ain’t worth nothin’ without love.” From there K. (ne Steve Krikorian) offers songs examining the destruction of Eden (“The Executioner’s Song,” “Where Is That Place?”) and the building of a new one (the love song “Stay” and the intensely personal testament of faith “You Were There”)--plus what has to be the most accurate look at the female view of the war between the sexes ever written by a male, the only partly tongue-in-cheek “What Women Want.”

With T Bone Burnett and ex-Red Hot Chili Pepper Jack Sherman trotting out their best Ventures/Duane Eddy guitar licks, Booker T. Jones making his Hammond organ laugh and cry simultaneously, and bassists David Miner (who co-produced with K.) and James Jamerson Jr. (son of the late, great Motown bassist) providing the bump, the musical mix is just as intelligent, subtle and complex as the themes. And to top it off, nearly every cut is both hummable and danceable.