Melissa Etheridge Takes Risks MELISSA ETHERIDGE “Brave and Crazy.” Island: ***: POP STARS: ***** Great Balls of Fire: ***** Knockin’ on Heaven’s: *** Good Vibrations: ** Maybe Baby: * Ain’t That a Shame

On her debut album last year, former folkie Etheridge moved mountains with a searing, electrifying voice that sounded like a rootsier, chancier version of Patty Smyth’s husky rock howl. But that album’s material was too samey, relentlessly presenting her as this wronged blues-mama with an eternal boulder on her shoulder: a Woman Who Loves Too Much going in for the melodramatic overkill.

The follow-up isn’t too much sunnier when you look at it closely, but it’s a marked improvement and a far superior effort to its Grammy-nominated predecessor. Bad relationships, Etheridge’s lyrical raison d’etre , are dealt with in more interesting (i.e., not just angry or tragic) terms, and the music strikes more major keys and different palettes. There’s more humor, not just in the words but in the way she takes some sly and brilliant risks with her confident vocal phrasing, like so much compressed air leaking in explosive bursts.

Production values remain minimal and conservative. At times the songs could stand more ornamentation, if even just some of the pounding electric guitars that might make her sound more like, yes, Smyth. But it’s hard to complain when an artist’s focus remains so true to its acoustic guitar roots as Etheridge’s.