In Brief

* * 1/2 Tracy Lawrence, “Alibis,” Atlantic. Lawrence makes some strides over last year’s debut album, but forward motion comes in steps rather than leaps. He’s ever-so-cautiously exploiting his twangy, elastic voice, and produces a couple of moments of real abandon. Next, he needs to assemble a batch of songs that reach beyond the tried-and-true.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).