****SAM PHILLIPS”Cruel Inventions” VirginIn a key song...

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SAM PHILLIPS

“Cruel Inventions”

Virgin

In a key song on her new album called “Standing Still,” Phillips, suddenly self-conscious late into a dance marathon (i.e. American life), declares: “I want them to think I’m dead / Turn off the noises that drug my brain / And make me buy.” Rather than sing this with big dollops of self-righteous passion, Phillips sounds stoned, half-asleep, spiritually zombie-fied . . . and it’s a bravura vocal.

Unapologetically downbeat, “Cruel Inventions” is an album to rouse, if not quite raise, the walking dead, a chronicle of weary introspection that’s pretty and sensitive but by no means precious. Sinead O’Connor may be the closest comparison for some--ironic, given that Phillips takes a nice swipe at her (“If I said I don’t want what I don’t have, I’d be lying”)--but Phillips is more interested in personal than political correctness.

Moreover, her catchy, barbed eclecticism sounds like the Beatles (an unstated credit for Phillips’ writing and T Bone Burnett’s production) mellowing out after some healthy tokes of the great religious societal critic Walker Percy (who is credited). For lovers of difficult pure pop, “Cruel” is kind.

Albums are rated on a scale of one asterisk (poor) to five (a classic).