A link to the legacy

“To Whom It May Concern” (Capitol)

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“Lights Out,” this album’s marvelous first single, has the sweeping melodic hook and gutsy, blues-tinged vocal to be the hit that it is regardless of who made it. But the fact that Elvis’ daughter is talking about her own link to the Presley legacy makes it one of the most hauntingly personal songs we’ll hear this year.

Not everything else on the album keeps pace. Presley, who wrote virtually all the lyrics, reexamines painful relationships in many of the songs, and some of them (“S.O.B.,” “The Road Between”) work well. Others lack the revelation (though not anger or drama) to make us share her emotions.

Things tend to be stronger when she steps away from relationship traumas, as on “So Lovely,” an ode to her two children, and the title song, expressing alarm over the careless prescription of antidepressants for teens.

Presley works in a hard-edged pop-rock style, broad enough for a trace of the country and blues that inspired her dad. But the music here in no way leans on Elvis. In “To Whom It May Concern,” Presley wants to pass the credibility test, and she does.

-- Robert Hilburn

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