Childs’ Play : Check List ****<i> Great Balls of Fire</i> ***<i> Good Vibrations</i> **<i> Maybe Baby</i> *<i> Running on Empty </i>

**TONI CHILDS. “Union.” A&M.; Childs is one of the new crop of female singer/songwriters being marketed to cash in on the Suzanne Vega audience. An exponent of music for people who want world peace and one love that will last to eternity, Childs sings in a big, dramatic voice that combines the slick brassiness of Sting with the full-bodied earthiness of Phoebe Snow. Childs can really belt out a tune, but none of the tunes she belts out here is particularly memorable. Most of the songs were co-written by Childs and David Ricketts (of the pop duo David + David), and the sentiments expressed bring Peter Gabriel to mind, as do the percolating world rhythms. The inflated, high-tech production couldn’t get any thicker if it tried, making it hard to get a sense of the structure of Childs’ songs. One suspects they might fall apart if they were stripped down to an acoustic level, but that isn’t necessarily a commercial liability. The important thing is that Childs’ songs say nothing that will confuse or alarm anyone, and that makes “Union” marketable product.