*** The Jayhawks

SMILE

(Columbia)

Although only two of the band's founding members -- singer and guitarist Gary Louris and bassist Marc Perlman -- remain, much of the Jayhawks' sixth album recalls the their past as seminal alterna-country heroes. There are doleful, rootsy ballads like "A Break in the Clouds" and "Broken Harpoon," both of which echo with a familiar dusty stillness; there's the rambling and pensive "What Led Me to this Town," which features twangy Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris harmonies between Louris and keyboard player Karen Grotberg (a member since the early '90s, Grotberg departed the band after Smile's completion). Elsewhere Smile blossoms into the Jayhawks' most stylistically diverse album to date, with a distinct pop vibe brightening the band's pastoral songwriting, transforming the rootsy "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" into a melodic Byrds-do-Dylan nugget, and endowing the rousing final track, "Baby, Baby, Baby," with a tuneful psychedelic edge. And it doesn't hurt to have a veteran producer like Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Kiss) on board to get all those little period touches from the '70s just right.

-- Linda Laban