Tom Jans: Tom Jans (A & M)

I have a number of reservations about the current tidal wave of singer-songwriters. Setting aside your Joni Mitchells and your Bob Dylans, most of the other ranks seem to me to lack wit and skill, although occasionally coming up with a pleasant little song.

From the first minute of the first track this album is clearly in another class altogether. To begin with, mentor williams' arrangements are clear, sparse and well-voiced. The tunes don't have the instant charm of say, Joni Mitchell, but they're not a collection of identikit licks, either. They've obviously been fitted to the words with attention to the dramatic rises and falls in story or atmosphere.

Jans' lyrics are the things which take me, though. I may be making a large claim (but I'd defend it) when I say that this is the first example I've found where the serious, poetic side of modern folk-pop has been tempered and sharpened by the wit and sublety of Nashville lyricism. There are plenty of examples to choose from: 'Margarita', a paean directed at Jans' current love, the snappy 'Tender Memory" or 'Hart's Island', a song dealing with an archetypal 'Midnight Cowboy' character - 'The streets of New York city were his only friend / Fit him like a glove on a fighter's hand . . . The only thing that's worse than dying in disgrace / Is being buried there on Hart's island.'

There are funny songs, love songs, dramatic monologues and others which manage to cram every American myth into their four-minute spaces. It's not just me, either. Artists to record Jans' songs recently include Elvis Presley Dobie Gray, Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy. Of the previously recorded songs here 'Loving Arms' impresses me as a superior version, while the initially not-so-strong lyric of 'Free and Easy' benefits from being placed squarely within a sprung reggae framework.

Jans' voice, while not particularly forceful, retains an appealing quality which enables him to transcend the weaker syrical moments. It skips nimbly from dry to sweet and encompasses a widely-scattered range of influences.

His vocal stylings are reinforced by some tasteful, often understated, lead and steel guitar work from Lonnie Mack and Weldon Myrick.

With their accustomed display of efficiency the record companies are releasing too many albums of this type - if not this quality - and don't promote them properly. This one must be on the secret list because I've only seen it mentioned in one other place. It's maddening because it's such a good piece of work - sensitive, literate and accomplished. If you can persuade your dealer that it exists, please get it.

Patrick O'dea