JAHEIM

Ghetto Classics

(Warner Bros.)

I'm sure that for Jaheim, recently hitting that number-one spot feels like reaching his potential, but his latest album seems like a not-so-classic illustration of squandered talent. These days there's no doubt that smoky-voiced Southern belter Anthony Hamilton isn't alone in possessing old-school pipes — Jaheim also could have thrived at Stax or Hi Records a few decades back. But Hamilton honors his own life with songwriting chops that this New Jersey native has yet to develop.

Teddy Pendergrass is usually the one invoked when people reach for comparisons to Jaheim's honeyed yet ever so slightly raspy tones. But I'd say the late Luther is worth mentioning as well, partly because Jaheim hasn't landed on a comfortable first-person space to sing from when he digs into the love themes that are any R&B artist's meal ticket.

His best single to date still might be the borderline-corny "Put That Woman First" (from 2002's Still Ghetto, the second of his three Ghetto discs), which finds him giving advice from a distance to an everyman on how to keep a relationship alive. In contrast, Ghetto Classics is overstuffed with songs that ooze praise for females so perfect in every way that they seem heaven-sent — in other words, fake or fictional. The best example — meaning my fave song here — might be "Fiend," where a Delfonics sample does a lot of the emotional work. Too many of the songs surrounding it are the type of chart toppers from just yesterday that turn out to be tomorrow's throwaways. (Johnny Ray Huston)

EDITH FROST

It's a Game

(Drag City)

You can usually tell how you feel about someone when you're willing to listen to him or her lament a broken heart. Most people can't get away with it. But you'll listen to those few special friends no matter what. They've shared stories and sensations with so much color and depth that when they come to you in a time of desperation, you're more than willing to soak it all up.

It becomes clear on listening to It's a Game, Edith Frost's first album in more than four years, that someone broke her heart badly. On prior releases she's taken us to the stark and haunting sides of country, allowed us to wander into haziness, and showed off her pop chops. Now, with It's a Game, she meditates on the depths of obsessive thoughts and feelings that take over when fragile hopes are shattered. You get the idea that, as hard as she tried, there was no way she was going to be able to write a song that didn't have to do with this state of mind. All 13 tracks echo the sentiment "I don't want it to be over ..." Still, this is not an artist who has built her career singing about love gone wrong: Her songs were always much more about the landscape and characters. Her presence seemed to represent the missing link between Gillian Welch and Cat Power.

On It's a Game the writing is more straightforward, the production more minimal. Yet while she's proved she has so much more to say and offer, we're willing to be right here with her now, as her combination of earnestness and elegance has never let us down. (Irwin Swirnoff)

EDITH FROST

Tues/4, 9:30 p.m.

Hemlock Tavern

1131 Polk, SF

$10

(415) 923-0923

www.hemlocktavern.com