Another Strong Case : POP STARS:***** Great Balls of Fire: **** Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door: *** Good Vibrations:** Maybe Baby: * Ain’t That a Shame : PETER CASE: “The Man With the Blue Post-Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar.” Geffen *** 1/2

Many write about the down-and-out, but few do so with the humanizing touch of Peter Case. On his second solo album, the singer-songwriter relates what he’s seen while “standing on the corner of Walk and Don’t Walk,” with a feeling that goes well beyond compassion, and with a minimum of moralizing.

On his 1986 solo debut, Case spun a series of vivid allegories involving American heroes, dreamers and losers, all set to a dynamic musical tapestry. In contrast, these songs play it straight, both musically and lyrically.

The arrangements draw effectively, if sometimes predictably, from various American styles, from the acoustic country blues of the traditional “Charlie James” to the “Highway 61 Revisited”-like, freewheeling free-association of “This Town’s a Riot.” The album may not have the invention of the debut, but the loose, personal feel makes a fine substitute.

The bottom line is always Case’s skill as a storyteller. And though he presents a world that seems pretty bleak, Case underscores it all with a sense of hope, expressed in the closing testimony to faith that “someone sees the dreams we hide.”