Album Reviews : In Brief

** 1/2 Faith Hill, “It Matters to Me,” Warner Bros. Country’s female success story of 1994 has followed her utterly ordinary debut album--which nonetheless went platinum--with a batch of songs that do indeed seem to matter to her. She helps make them matter to the listener with vocals that are spunkier and more soulful. A solid step forward.

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