Heart is a moody album packed with some extraordinary, transcendent moments. Alongside Carlos Vega's hypnotic drums and Ry Cooder's dreamy slide guitar, Neville turns John Hiatt's "It Feels Like Rain" into a wicked ode to girls and the elements. Get him around the incomparable Dr. John's brakeless piano and he effortlessly delivers the casual howl of the album's title cut. And Plas Johnson's tenor sax pours fuel on Neville's fire in a sultry version of New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint's "That's the Way She Loves."

Predictably, coproducer Linda Ronstadt and Neville do indulge in some token flirty numbers ("Close Your Eyes," "Everybody Plays the Fool") that seem ripe for the VH1 airwaves. Neville also duets with Rita Coolidge on Jimmy Buffett's "La Vie Dansante." But it is Neville's peerless songs of conviction, not his pairings with divas divine, that make Warm Your Heart a tempestuous lesson in love and faith.

With a street-choir tinge, Neville turns "I Bid You Goodnight" into a sweet devotional, and his "Ave Maria" is simply overwhelming. At a very young age, Aaron Neville must have taken the meaning of the gospel deep into his heart. Anyone who so powerfully uses the gift of his voice to transform songs into angelic spirituals must have seen the light as soon as he saw the day. (RS 610)

CHUCK DEAN