Maturing in Their Own Ways

La Streisand’s latest album (due in stores Tuesday) is essentially a 12-track dedication to her husband, actor James Brolin, featuring songs that extol the joys and blessings of l’amour. It seems like the perfect recipe for a schmaltz-fest, but in fact, this collection offers some of the most unaffected, emotionally direct work that the uber-diva has done in years.

Streisand is helped by good material, ranging from Rolf Lovlind and Ann Hampton Callaway’s gracefully earnest “I’ve Dreamed of You” to Roger Brown and Clay Baker’s playful “We Must Be Loving Right,” produced by Nashville’s Tony Brown with an appealing mix of elegance and earthy warmth. The tender, tasteful orchestral arrangements also serve her well, even if some of the songs--notably “The Island,” with its Kenny G sax solo, and “If You Ever Leave Me,” a Vince Gill duet produced and arranged by David Foster and Richard Marx--drift off into the adult-contemporary ether.

Predictably, though, Streisand’s vocals carry this album in the end. Her creamy voice has lost some of the piercing clarity that distinguished her early recordings, but it has acquired a ripe, knowing sensuousness that works especially well on songs that allude to love found later in life. On a gorgeous interpretation of “Isn’t It a Pity?” she delivers Ira Gershwin’s simple, timeless lyrics with the wistful wisdom of someone who has learned the difference between glib sentimentality and true romance. S’wonderful.