In Brief

* * 1/2 Inner Circle, “Bad Boys,” Big Beat/Atlantic. Sure, “Bad Boys” owes its fast-track ascent to the Top 10 to being the “Cops” TV theme song, but it also signals that exposure to roots reggae with magnetic hooks can generate a wide audience appeal. The veteran quintet’s well-crafted reggae, strong musically but undercut by undistinguished lyrics, only comes close to matching the title track with the microphone/gunslinger image of “Bad to the Bone” on this repackaged version of an album (with extra tracks) released through RAS last year.

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