RECORD RACK

The tenacious teen with the platinum pipes is back at the ripe old age of 15 with her sights set on nothing short of world domination. The pop-music world, that is.

Looking to cement her spot alongside the Celines and Whitneys in the pop-diva stratosphere, Rimes makes some wise artistic moves on her fourth album, even if some individual selections are undercut by generic lyrics or standard-issue studio-pro backing.

Most significant is that these songs largely befit her years. To lift a phrase, age matters. The purity of the hopes and dreams expressed in “Commitment” and “Nothin’ New Under the Moon,” unblemished as they are by real-world compromises and disappointments, sound utterly believable. Rimes’ peers will relate, and their parents will remember fondly when all that mattered in love was the starry look in another’s eyes.

The most interesting choice is Prince’s “Purple Rain.” It takes chutzpah to tackle a song so central to another major pop artist’s body of work, and while Rimes doesn’t add anything that Prince didn’t think of, she cops a sassy Tina Turner attitude and vocal bite that carries her through magnificently.

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