** Billy Dean, “Fire in the Dark,”...

** Billy Dean, “Fire in the Dark,” Liberty. On his third album, the country singer strives to embody the ideal ‘90s man: strongly masculine, sensitive without being wimpy. More often than not, he loses his balance. His pop-inflected vocals have an easygoing, Rick Nelson quality, but he gives in too often to cliches, both in his own songs and those by other writers.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).