Paula Cole: Impressive Range, Emotions Ripe for a Rock Diva

The overarching theme of Paula Cole’s two albums is her struggle not to let the expectations of others or the riptide of emotional need and sexual attraction erode her sense of self.

With her current album, “This Fire,” a burgeoning hit, this newly minted pop rock diva has come along at the right time to avoid another kind of trap. A generation ago, a talent like Cole would have been pinned to the expected female role of confessional singer-songwriter, admired for the sensitivity of her observations, the strong emotion of her singing and the attractiveness of her melodies.

Now women have other options, and Cole doesn’t let many of them go untested. Playing for an adoring, near-capacity crowd Sunday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, she unleashed the hellish fury of a woman scorned, bluesily moaned her lust and overindulged in self-administered primal-scream therapy.

She sang impressively, with wide, assured range, charismatic presence and far more control than in her Lilith Fair set at Irvine Meadows last summer, when she frequently went off the tracks in a heated attempt to make a big impact in a big venue.

With her gift for drama, Cole was never boring. But the unevenness of her 90-minute show suggested that too many options aren’t always good for art, and that maybe the forced boundaries of the old stereotypes did, at least, lend themselves to more focused and consistent artistry. Her best stuff fell squarely within the old, no-screaming tradition of down-the-middle, melodic pop-rock songwriting.

*

* Paula Cole plays tonight at the Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., 8 p.m. $22.50 and $27.50. (213) 380-5005.