In Brief

By blending Sheryl Crow’s style of R&B-steeped;, roughhouse rock and Alanis Morissette’s aggro-pop, Brooks has created her biggest obstacle: her similarity to her precursors. Stirring, Indian-sounding guitar flourishes and swirls of ambient dance don’t quite save such songs as the KROQ hit “Bitch” and “I Need” (“I need a guru, I need to chill, I need a Mercedes 280 SL”) from sounding trite on this otherwise sweetly jagged debut.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).

Hear the Music

* Excerpts from these albums and other recent releases are available on The Times’ World Wide Web site. Point your browser to: http://preview.nohib.com/soundclips