In Brief

** Randy Travis, “High Lonesome,” Warner Bros. Not a complete return to the country star’s early form, but he’s found more good songs than usual, inspiring some of his liveliest vocals in years--you can hear real venom as he bails out of the high-class life in “Better Class of Losers.” More often, though, Travis sings dutifully rather than passionately, and he has to cope with back-to-back clunkers (“Point of Light” and “Together Forever”) that would confound the greatest country singer of any era.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).