* PAULA COLE”Amen”Warner Bros.In a world where...

* PAULA COLE

“Amen”

Warner Bros.

In a world where callous disregard for the lives and hopes of others is increasingly the norm, it’s admirable that a successful pop artist sincerely wants to “make a difference,” as Cole croons on “Be Somebody,” the most fervent of her third album’s pleas for peace and understanding. But good intentions don’t necessarily make for good art, and the Berklee-trained musician’s attempt to provide an uplifting collection for the millennium proves painfully pretentious.

The swirling melodrama in these nine self-produced tracks (in stores Tuesday) recalls the eccentric work of Kate Bush and Tori Amos. But while Cole’s florid vocals display similarly impressive abilities, her compositions don’t convey as unique a personality. She employs a variety of pop styles, from Bee Gees-esque disco-funk to spooky blues to hip-hop (complete with anemic rapping), but lofty arrangements obscure the songs’ humanity.

Any compassionate person may rightly be distressed by drive-bys, homelessness and brutal military coups. But Cole’s vague hand-wringing is simply hysterical. Even such first-person character portraits as “La Tonya,” which laments poverty and its attendant problems through the cliched tale of a promiscuous girl, lack the imagination and perception that elevate such truly affecting protests as Steve Earle’s “Ellis Unit One,” which imparts an anti-death-penalty message via a death row guard.

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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.