Rufus Wainwright occupies a rather unique position in today's music world. His cabaret pop style, almost bordering on the operatic, is beloved by everyone from straight-out rockers to show-tune aficionados. Openly gay, with flamboyance in abundance and an ego to match, he makes adult pop, laced with strings, tympanis, big brass sections, and whatever else he can fit into the mix. Forgoing the usual verse/chorus/verse structures, he lets his songs proceed where his melodies take them, using his powerful, melancholy, and sometimes brazen vocal style to propel his songs along their ambitious trajectory. While Rufus says that he is "going for the cash registers" with this, his fifth album, he may fall short of this aim while still providing us with a beautiful musical statement. The lack of pop vocal hooks, along with his sometimes bombastic self-production, is unlikely to find a home on the radio. The songs are, however, beautifully executed. Befitting his love for the over-the-top moment (he recently recreated Judy Garland's entire 1961 Carnegie Hall performance and is currently working on a commission for the Metropolitan Opera entitled "Prima Donna"), Wainwright wheels out multi-voiced choirs, bold brass passages, and woodwind hooks to propel some of his songs, while others rely on simple string and piano accompaniment and come across almost as lullabies. Throughout, his voice is a thing of wonder. Dedicated to his mother, folk legend Kate McGarrigle (his father is Louden Wainwright), Release The Stars is definitely low on modesty and self-doubt, but with this type of talent, this attitude is completely appropriate.

RYAN SHAW-THIS IS RYAN SHAW

A common lament heard from music fans and critics alike is that "They don't make them/write them/sing them like they used to". Ryan Shaw and his associates are here to tell you, "Oh yes we do!" On his debut album, Shaw has picked nine obscure pop/soul nuggets from the sixties and seventies, added three of his own compositions, and come up with an album that joyously recalls the heyday of Stax and Motown. Shaw has a voice that echoes Bobby Womack, Wilson Pickett, Michael Jackson (in the ecstatic "whoo-ooh'" sprinkled throughout), and, most readily, Sam of Sam & Dave (of "Hold On, I'm Comin'" and "Soul Man" fame). The album opens with "Do The 45, " an uncelebrated sixties dance tune that sounds like it's straight out of the Junior Walker and Booker T. songbook, with its gritty vocals, stabbing guitars, and overriding organ groove. Equally unknown "non-hits" by the Chambers Brothers, Pickett, Holland/Dozier/Holland, Arthur Alexander, and Ashford & Simpson make up the bulk of the album, with each making you wonder how this one never made it onto the charts. So unrenowned was Ashford & Simpson's "I Am Your Man," that when Shaw played his horn-drenched version over the phone to the duo, themselves, they didn't even recognize it as one of theirs until the song was nearly over. And Shaw's own compositions fit in so perfectly, one would be hard-pressed to identify which of the compositions are newly penned versus being over thirty years old. A few weeks ago this column gave a glowing review to the Stax 50th anniversary compilation. If your musical tastes run in that direction, make sure and get this contemporary dose of pleading, pledging, and supremely pleasing odes to love, all laced with Shaw's great voice, exuberance, and musical know-how.