SOUND CHECKS TRAIN/``DROPS OF JUPITER'' (AWARE/COLUMBIA).

Train's 1999 breakthrough ``Meet Virginia'' essentially rolled out of nowhere. By that time, the rootsy Bay Area quintet had crossed the country multiple times and played hundreds of gigs. When the bittersweet single hit, Train really got down to work, eventually seeing its self-titled 1998 debut sell a million copies.

The new effort didn't need a hit to ignite sales. The sparkling, well- crafted ``Drops of Jupiter'' jumped to No. 6 upon release - and for all the right reasons.

While Train clearly borrows from R.E.M., Counting Crows and Elton John, frontman Pat Monahan brings something new to the party, and the haunting trumpet phrases he blows during the melancholy album-closer, ``Mississippi,'' hints at a depth of feeling and musicianship rare in today's inch-deep pop landscape.

The delightfully melodic 11-track ``Drops of Jupiter'' is also an unusually coherent work, and credit here must go to producer Brendan O'Brien, whose golden touch at the console has helped fashion smash hits for Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and Stone Temple Pilots - but don't hold that against him.

Sometimes utilizing mandolin, harmonica, bongos and acoustic guitars, Train finds an organic, natural-sounding groove while striking the right range of moods on such inviting numbers as ``Hopeless,'' ``Get Away'' and ``Let It Roll.''

Best of all, though, is the title track, which brings swollen strings and piano to a gorgeous number that wouldn't sound out of place on ``Tumbleweed Connection.''

With a minimum of hype, Train has created radio-friendly pop that won't make you embarrassed to sing along. Three and one half stars

- Fred Shuster

Johnny Griffin and Steve Grossman/``Quintet'' (Dreyfus Jazz)

Hard bop saxophonist Griffin shows he still can blow with anybody with this quintet album, recorded with fellow tenor sax man Grossman. Griffin, 72, and Grossman (probably best-known for his stint with Miles Davis' fusion group), make a perfect team, delivering an energetic set that recalls Griffin's classic Blue Note work with another tenor great, Hank Mobley. The headliners offer a spirited take on Griffin's classic tune ``Waltswing'' and provide a couple of mellow change-ups, including Griffin's ``Don't Say Good-bye (Just Leave).'' It adds up to a satisfying hard-bop outing from a couple of saxophonists who seem to get better with time. Three stars

- Glenn Whipp

Delinquent Habits/``Merry Go Round'' (Ark21)

Ten years ago, Latino hip-hop was an acquired taste, like chorizo. Today it's everywhere, and the locally based Spanglish trio Delinquent Habits is rightfully considered one of the genre's founders.

The band's third album is a rich carnival of diverse rhythms, strong beats and booming speaker-dissolving bass, drawing upon the musicians' culturally rich collective backgrounds.

But just because ``Merry Go Round'' falls under the hip-hop banner, don't expect the usual cliched stories of police and thieves. Standouts like ``Return of the Tres,'' ``Boulevard Star'' and ``Beijing'' prove that, for these guys, the 'hood doesn't equate with a jail sentence. Four stars

- Sandra Barrera

Tom Russell/``Borderland'' (HighTone)

L.A.'s own master of contemporary cowboy music has been hanging around El Paso for awhile and the result is his most sublime theme album yet.

Combining personal history, Tex-Mex orchestrations and a boundless gift for detailed narrative, Russell starts off audaciously with ``Touch of Evil'' - in which he manages to movingly juxtapose lore about Orson Welles' classic border noir with the story of his own latest heartbreak - and sustains the high-stakes songcraft through the 10 cuts that follow.

Cleanly produced by Lucinda Williams' longtime former collaborator Gurf Morlix to spotlight Russell's anguished, baritone vibrato, the album brilliantly deploys landscape and legend of the Southwest frontier as resonant metaphor for the boundaries that separate men from women, hope from disaster and people from their dreams. Four stars

- Bob Strauss

Bob Newhart/``Something Like This: The Bob Newhart Anthology'' (Rhino)

If, like me, you've missed Newhart's droll sarcasm on the box, this collection of material from seven of his 1960s ``Button-Down Mind'' albums will seem like a godsend. Newhart possessed perfect timing and could turn a pregnant pause into the funniest bit you'd ever heard. His smart writing, keen observational skills and deadpan delivery made for material that hasn't aged in the slightest.

Highlights here include ``Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue,'' which skewers the packaging of politics, and ``Retirement Party,'' a brutally funny take on corporate inhumanity.

Valley footnote: Much of the material comes from Newhart dates taped in the early '60s at California State University, Northridge, when it was known as San Fernando Valley State College. (Just in case you were around then.) Three stars

- G.W.

Maria Muldaur/``Richland Woman Blues'' (Stony Plain)

What's happened to Muldaur's voice? Sounds like, maybe, something awful; there's not a speck of the chanteusey sweetness from the ``Midnight at the Oasis'' days to be heard on this bracing, 1920s and '30s country blues collection.

But whether they were contrived or couldn't be avoided, Muldaur's deep growl, all-guts vocals are wonderfully apropos for this set of uncompromisingly emotional wails by the likes of Memphis Minnie, Mississippi John Hurt and Bessie Smith.

The equally starry guest artist list includes Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Nelson and Angela Strehli, and culminates in a blistering duet with Taj Mahal on Blind Willie Johnson's ``Soul of a Man.'' We hope Maria feels all right; especially since her latest work sure makes us feel so good. Three stars

-- B.S.

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