POP MUSIC : ** 1/2 FRANK BLACK, “The Cult of Ray”, American Recordings

In his post-Pixies incarnation, Frank Black has moved increasingly further from the creepy currents that made that band genuinely disquieting. No longer the mysterious Black Francis, he’s become an amiable emissary of oddity, a hard-charging prankster who delights in word play and scientific puzzles, musical collisions and the quirks of human behavior. In a way, his three albums are rock-music counterparts to tabloids like the Weekly World News.

Musically, Black seeks to carry on the spirit of records whose simple purpose was to be dynamic, eventful, grand, three-minute epiphanies. “I like distortion when I bar chord,” he sings in this album’s “Jesus Was Right,” blending nerd-rock heart and jock muscle.

There’s something bracing about Black’s frantic attack and comical ranting. Taking a rawer, guitar-dominated rock path this time, he kicks up enough wind to keep “The Cult of Ray” sailing smartly through a buoyant first half. But it runs out of steam pretty abruptly--the churning becomes faceless, the hooks lose definition, and it tailspins into the ground. Maybe aliens stole his brain.