• POP

JOHNNY FLYNN

A Larum

Lost Highway

*** ½

Every so often comes a new voice so unique and assured that the level of talent is never in question: Norah Jones, The Strokes and Amy Winehouse come to mind. Add to that list 25-year-old British troubadour Johnny Flynn, whose baby face masks a truly old soul. His brand of energetic, traditional folk-rock predictably brings to mind the Waterboys and Proclaimers, but intricate nods to the Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull and Bob Dylan also permeate A Larum (Old English for ``alarm'').

Flynn -- whose pleasant, just-a-bloke vocals recall Ringo Starr's deliberate, slightly stiff delivery -- makes the mishmash of influences truly his own. He's first and foremost a storyteller, but he also happens to excel on guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, accordion and even trumpet.

On the stomping single The Box, Flynn convincingly evokes the life of a hobo with lines such as ''When you live in a box by the rails/You don't comb your hair, don't comb your tail'' and 'Sweep my mess away, leave my body, leave my bones/Leave me whole and leave my soul/Leave me nothin' I don't need at all.'' Listening to the jaunty, tavern sing-along Tickle Me Pink (``Pray for the people inside your head/For they won't be there when you're dead''), you half expect to see sailors merrily brawling. The stoned, slow-as-molasses folk of Brown Trout Blues is lifted by drawling country harmonies and muted trumpets -- it sounds like a spontaneous jam on a front porch.

But the loveliest moments are found in Shore To Shore, with Eleanor Rigby cello accents adding mournful weight to Flynn's confession: ``There lies a lady -- she's gone, she's gone/She'll be a fine lady before too long/But I hit her head and she finished her walking/She shouldn't be dead/She was too busy talking.''

Here's hoping newcomer Flynn has another decade of stories to tell.

Pod Picks: The Box, Tickle Me Pink, Shore To Shore.

-- MICHAEL HAMERSLY

RICK SPRINGFIELD

Venus in Overdrive

New Door/Universal

** ½

The buzz isn't deafening but the new Rick Springfield CD could be his biggest hit in quite some time. He's back on the daytime soap General Hospital in a dual role (Dr. Noah Drake, rocker Eli Love) and sings this disc's first single, What's Victoria's Secret? on the show. Plus, the song itself is such a blatant musical rewrite of his most famous hit, Jessie's Girl, with its similar chunky guitars and catchy chorus hook, Springfield's bound to tap into fans' nostalgic groove.

Despite its clever title, Victoria's Secret? leaves less of an impression than Jessie's Girl did in 1981 because its lyrics are muddled by comparison. The rest of Venus in Overdrive, written by Springfield with bassist Matt Bissonette, darts between familiar and likable '80s-style rockers and some less-than-thrilling attempts at contemporary rock.

Overall, Springfield, 58, is in good vocal form and up to the task of updating this album's obvious blueprint -- the 1981 breakthrough Working Class Dog.

Pod Picks:What's Victoria's Secret, One Passenger, Venus in Overdrive.

-- HOWARD COHEN

hcohen@MiamiHerald.com

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