*** Luscious Jackson, “Electric Honey,” Grand Royal/Capitol.

Summer demands a special kind of music, a sound that captures the warmth of the sun, bounces it back through the groove and lets your mind wander wherever it wants to go. With its mix of serious emotion and erotic fancy, Luscious Jackson’s first new collection in almost three years (in stores Tuesday) positively quivers with the season’s heady sense of reflection and possibility.

The New York-based group, now a trio, hasn’t much changed its distinctive urban blend of groovy hip-hop beats, pulsing funk, noodling guitar licks, folky singing and hyper rapping. Only the slow-motion surf song “Fly” and the bluesy, elegiac ballad “Lover’s Moon” depart from the formula, closing the album on a dreamy, wistful note.

Otherwise, it’s all sidewalk vibes and guest stars, including Deborah Harry, Emmylou Harris and Daniel Lanois. There’s emotional substance in such numbers as the wary love song “Ladyfingers,” but, c’mon, this is a summer record, on which city-dwellers ache to trade hot pavement for cool grass (“Country’s a Callin”) and the libidinous effects of sunshine are acutely felt (“Summer Daze”). But beware the lure of “Alien Lover,” a synth-drenched romp that might make some extraterrestrial swingers think Earth girls really are easy.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.