JACKSON BROWNE “World In Motion.” Elektra **: POP STARS ***** Great Balls of Fire **** Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door *** Good Vibrations ** Maybe Baby * Ain’t That a Shame

Like the world he sings about in the title tune, Jackson Browne’s career is also in motion. But, if he looks a little closer, he’ll find both are spinning in circles.

Long among the highest-profile socially active rockers, Browne offers no great surprises with his first album in three years. It’s overflowing with passionate views on a plethora of topics, from the world’s homeless and hopeless to U.S. government cover-ups to human-rights abusers in foreign lands.

With a few exceptions, it all unreels like Newsweek-on-tape.

Even the philosophically sympathetic will be in for some pretty heavy rowing with an album that opens with the statement, “Sun goin’ down in the U.S.A.” Great passion does not necessarily translate into great art, and the poetics that Browne so skillfully applied to human relationships in earlier albums get steamrollered under the pressure of weighty world issues.

The real giveaway here is that the most poignant song, “My Personal Revenge,” wasn’t written by Browne. It’s a hauntingly pretty song by Latin American writers Tomas Borge and Louis Enrique Mejia Godoy. Rather than yearning to obliterate political oppressors, the authors propose a Gandhi-like, non-combative brand of justice. Musically, Browne expands his familiar folk-rock palette with touches of urban dance music and reggae, but it’s not nearly enough to compensate for the heavy-handedness of the lyrics. This is one case where Samuel Goldwyn’s advice to entertainers is right on target: If you want to send a message, use Western Union.