In Brief

* * Patty Loveless, “Only What I Feel,” Epic. After making some real strides with her previous two albums, Loveless takes a frustrating step backward. Whether it is due to her throat surgery last year or the pressure of a first album for a new label, her singing feels dynamically and emotionally compressed. Melodies are attractive, instrumental backing is spunky--what’s missing, ironically, is only what she feels.

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