Sisters Of Avalon

Cyndi Lauper hasn't "changed" or "matured" so much as she has consolidated. Where she once alternated wanton dance-rock anthems with sophisticated love ballads, she now writes and sings beat-heavy adult-rock songs that manage to be a bit of both at once. All that's missing is the wantonness. Throughout SISTERS OF AVALON, her fifth studio album, Lauper grapples with loves that she know can't last. If that was once a source of liberation or joy, it's now a reason for serious contemplation.

But while she contemplates, her band supplies a mountain of beats that borrow from hip-hop, dance-pop and reggae, and fills things in with rock guitar leads and dashes of Middle-Eastern instrumental spice. Lauper, always a flexible singer, raps a little bit, emotes a lot and offers the occasional reminder of her playful, she-bop past. The result is something like recent Everything But The Girl--thinking person's dance music.