ALBUM REVIEW

MARIA McKEE

“You Gotta Sin to Get Saved”

Geffen

* * * 1/2

Not only is McKee blessed with the best young voice in rock ‘n’ roll, she knows how to use it. Fans always said they wouldn’t mind hearing her sing the phone book, and McKee practically does coo and wail her way through the 1971-or-so Yellow Pages of Pop here, letting her fingers do the stalking from AAA -Al Green-style soul to zzz ealous Van Morrison remakes. The country, folk and power-pop listings are mined as well in a genre-hopping effort that’s a perfect summer album and a dazzling portrait of the artist as a young sponge.

The contrast between this and her first solo album four years ago is severe: Only “My Girlhood Among the Outlaws” recalls that last record’s lovely, lyrical confessionalism. For the most part here, she’s dressing down, revving up and hearkening back to the spunky spirit--if not the letter--of her days as frontwoman of post-cowpunk Lone Justice. Only now she writes classic-sounding R&B; weepers like “Why Wasn’t I More Grateful (When Life Was Sweet)” right alongside classic-sounding C&W; weepers like “Only Once.”

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).