Lisa Marie Presley:To Whom It May Concern

(Herald rating: * * *)

Well, yes, she can sing with a deep, sleepy, country-toned voice which sounds just a little like him. And, unlike Dad, she writes most of her own lyrics. But the big surprise about this debut by the King's late-blooming 35-year-old daughter, who is doing something to justify her fame other than serial marriage, is how confident and tasteful it is.

If her surname didn't get in the way, you might consider this is solid, melodic, if unadventurous bow by a singer-songwriter of the Sheryl Crow school. Sometimes — on the likes of Better Beware and So Lovely with its Midnight Cowboy lifted guitar motif — she can sound like the female Chris Isaak. And if the swagger and energy behind the best tracks like the opening S. O. B., and the single Lights Out (with its reference to Graceland's famous graveyard) and Sinking In isn't sustained throughout, it still makes for a better-than-expected affair which can hold its head high in the albums-by-rock-offspring category.

Label: Capitol