PATTY LARKIN

Closest Thing,'' the short meditation that opens this album, featuring a duet between Larkin's rich, breathy vocals and her evocative guitar that marries ancient Celtic drone with contemporary new-age, sets the tone for what follows, a densely gorgeous affair whose shimmering, swampy soundscapes recall Bob Dylan's ``Oh Mercy.'' The title track (``Open Arms''), a gorgeous, chill-inducing anthem of emotional independence, with resonant harmonies by Bruce Cockburn, could have sat comfortably on U2's ``Joshua Tree.'' Shawn Colvin and The Story also lend their voices on Larkin's best album to date.

PATTY LARKIN

Larkin's most experimental effort to date explores the myriad sonic possibilities of stringed instruments. Larkin alone plays national and lap steel, mandolin, bouzouki, acoustic, slide and electric guitars, while others contribute bass, cello and guitar. There's not a drum in sight, but ironically, the stark arrangements feature some of Larkin's most rhythmically unconventional songs, with percussion variously provided by thumping and banging on the guitars. "Wolf at the Door" sounds like acoustic Luscious Jackson, and "The Book I'm Not Reading" is ripe and radio-ready. [ 8/24/97 ]

CHRISTINE LAVIN

An experiment, a noble failure. Lavin enlisted producer Steve Rosenthal to perk up her arrangements. He brought a bag of tricks he picked up from Mitchell Froom's work with Suzanne Vega, but Lavin's no Vega, and her straightforward, dumpy persona can't bear the weight of Rosenthal's postmodern industrial-folk settings. Buried beneath the synths and the drum machines, however, are some classic Lavin tunes, including a first-person narrative by one of those TV psychics, which features the best opening line in the history of the world _ ``I knew you'd call, I'm a psychic.'' Why, of course.

SEAN LENNON

Into the Sun (Grand Royal)

It mustn't have been easy for the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono to make his first, mainstream artistic debut, but "Into the Sun" is an effort entirely worthy of Lennon and his fabulous lineage. While there are echoes of his father's yearning vocals and melodic gifts, Lennon fils displays his own sensibility, boasting a post-modern, eclectic ear that integrates jazz, funk, electronics, and Beach Boys-style pop with singular vision. From the evidence of this impressive piece of work, with one foot in the creative, downtown avant-garde and the other in the accessible, pop mainstream, Lennon may well evolve into an early-21st-century artist with the sort of power and influence wielded by his late father.[ 12/27/98 ]

LITTLE AXE

They call this ``ambient dub blues.'' Whatever. It's an eerie, infectious blend of state-of-the-art programming and sampling with the spirit and sound of delta blues, put together by the guys who used to record as Dub Syndicate and Tackhead. As such, it makes explicit the overwhelming debt so much contemporary music owes to the likes of Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf. It's blues for the millenium.

LONESOME BROTHERS

The so-called "No Depression" or alt.country movement has rekindled interest in roots-rock among record buyers, which comes as good news to all the musicians who never lost faith in the original fusion of country and R&B that gave birth to rock 'n' roll. This Pioneer Valley-based group, fronted by veteran songwriter/vocalists Jim Armenti and Ray Mason, play a timeless brand of rock where dobros, pedal steels and mandolins rub up against electric guitars and plaintive, catchy melodies, giving the term "classic rock" new meaning. Call them Northampton's answer to Little Village.[ 11/9/97 ]

LOS LOBOS