**1/2 Jim Carroll

POOLS OF MERCURY

(Mercury)

It starts with a promise of decapitation, as if to prove that his punkishness is still in effect almost two decades after Catholic Boy's skag stories turned heads. And it ends with an evaluation of Kurt Cobain's pre-blast psyche, part of which was published in the New York Times after the grunge god's death. Finales have always tickled Carroll's muse, and this intriguing rebirth -- he hasn't made a rock album in some 14 years -- is spotted with vicious eulogies and romanticized endgames. Although adept at the theatrics of murmurs and insinuation, Carroll makes his spoken verse resonate by blowing a bit of hot air into it.

About half the tracks here are recitations backlit with abstract sounds created by synths or guitars. Their arty ambiance helps frame hyper-poetic lines like "so silent, so slow, like the Germanic cough drop dissolving on John Cage's cautious tongue" while reminding us that Carroll is more effective at titillation than profundity. The rest are rock tunes, and these suggest that oomph and hooks are also a poet's tools. The catchiness of songs like "Falling Down Laughing" and "Desert Town" balance the more hermetic passages. Obfuscation is a rock-poesy copout, but Pools of Mercury is cloudy only when it chooses to be.

-- Jim Macnie