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ELVIS COSTELLO -- WHEN I WAS CRUEL (ISLAND) Elvis Costello has always had something to say about the liars, hypocrites, thieves, pimps, cheats, fools and flunkies in every strata of society. Costello has written entire songs filled with clever retorts and elegant putdowns of these types. The notably inelegant Eminem (his generation's angry young man, as was Costello) throttles his targets senseless and then returns to check the color of their bruises. Costello's wit, though, is like a dagger, and it leaves a sexy scar.

On his first straightup rock album since Brutal Youth, he warms up on easy targets like vapid starlets (Spooky Girlfriend) and teen pop in Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution) mainly, it seems, for being such easy targets to begin with. Has Britney Spears ever been savaged so civilly? Costello has eaten rock royalty for lunch before, and so 'N Sync must seem like a light snack.

When I Was Cruel No. 2 shows a degree of pity for the cheats and fools, though. Costello's morbid dissection of a party of reputed players follows a gloomy guitar loop. "Fingers once offered are now too heavy to extend," he notes as inertia moves the narrative forward to reveal indiscreet wives and bitter millionaires who were once young thugs. Perhaps Costello, now in his 40s, can see more clearly the gods who hurl the thunderbolts he has been dodging all his life. From cloud level, they look like sad beasts.

Sympathy for the wicked is brief because in a pair of readings of what is essentially the same song (Dust 2 . . . and . . . Dust), Costello wishes punishment to visit them. He imagines that the dead skin of the sinners that becomes dust can somehow gather to form a chalk outline to accuse the killers. The dust just gets breathed and passed around, though, until it settles in the groove of the narrator's record, causing it to skip over his accusations.

Costello finds mirth, too. In 45, he uses the vinyl relic to lovingly recall his love affair with rock 'n' roll and changing his name from Declan MacManus after hearing "a rebel in a nylon shirt." In the sweet My Little Blue Window, the man who once asked, "Do you have to be so cruel to be callous?" tells his love that, "the poison fountain pen needs the antidote." He otherwise remains cruel amid the kindness. A

-- SCOTT CHRABAS, Times staff writer

LUNA, ROMANTICA (JETSET) The lovers and the lovelorn who populate the tracks of Luna's Romantica aren't living the great romances. They spin their wheels at dull jobs all day and fumble toward awkward amorous consummations at night. Whether singer Dean Wareham is actually "blinded by lovedust" or just a little tipsy is left between the lines, but Luna's steady, shimmering rock grooves carry the warm buzz of a sundowner.

Wareham's mellow croon ducks rock Casanova posturing, and so do his lyrics. In Weird and Woozy, Wareham sings, "Dear Victoria, did you know you speak Spanish in your sleep? / I smoke cigarettes, in the bed / blowing smoke, on your head." There are no promises of forever here, naturally. On Black Champagne, a smitten Wareham peeks through a lush string arrangement to ask a lover, "Don't you want to know how the sting will go?"

A lifetime of flirtations and near-misses gets the better of the woman in Renee Is Crying, who has a bittersweet meltdown after dinner as Wareham muses on love made of silver and love made of gold. The nursery rhyme tells kids to make new friends and keep the old, but it's trickier for grownups. These shabby romantics are beyond blaming other people for their unluckiness because they've been around long enough to know better. "My wishes are washes," sings bassist Britta Phillips. Romantica is littered with witty assessments of hope after a certain age. Elsewhere, Wareham counters with, "If I had to do it all again I wouldn't." B

-- S.C.

WEEZER, MALADROIT (GEFFEN RECORDS) The title of this revived geek band's latest CD suggests that the players are less than comfortable dealing with the situations they face.

The lyrics, mostly about being dumped, indicate that Weezer is finding its way. In Take Control, for instance, Rivers Cuomo plaintively sings, "Leave me now, show me how, and I won't be ashamed of the things we once made, and I won't be coming back 'round here no more."

Add in an intriguing, eclectic mix of sounds, from the airy ballad Death and Destruction to the guitar-driven power pop of Fall Together, and Maladroit begins to sound rather deft. You can either dance or despair to the 34-minute, 13-track recording -- it all depends on your mood.

Drop the CD into your computer to find seven QuickTime videos, including five live (but short) performances of tunes from the music-only portion. Not a bad addition to the collection. B

-- JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, Times staff writer

SUSANA BACA, ESPIRITU VIVO (LUAKA BOP) Peruvian vocalist Susana Baca brings her elegant touch to this collection of songs she recorded to reaffirm her faith in life and to overcome pain and death in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.

Her voice blends effortlessly with the music of her excellent backing band, whether singing the rhythmic, tropical Se Me Van los Pies or the delicate classic love song Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves). Baca even tackles Icelandic pop star Bjork's modern-minimalist The Anchor Song with a stark sensuality that demands the listener's attention.

One need not understand a word of this mostly Spanish-language collection to appreciate the beauty of Baca's craft. Just sit back and enjoy it. A-

-- J.S.S.

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