The Great Puzzle (1992)

If you didn't know that singer- songwriter Jules Shear has been kicking around for years (his songs have been made into hits by both Cyndi Lauper and the Bangles, and he led late-'70s underground favorites Jules and the Polar Bears), his raspy, unpolished voice might clue you in: It has the comfortable, slept-in quality of rumpled flannel PJs, and that's its great charm. For his latest selection of catchy, nimble- witted pop songs, Shear has assembled an intuitive backing band-including guitarist Steuart Smith and keyboardist Joy Askew-that stands up to the weird candor of his lyrics (''I can wait like a dog/But I waited for hours/Kind of makes this puppy/Want to pee on flowers''). On ''The Trap Door'' and ''We Were Only Making Love,'' chiming guitars conjure the gentle power of blinking stars- a perfect match for Shear's disarmingly earnest diction. And for all Shear's cleverness with a lyric, it's his delivery that really makes the record sing: On ''Bark'' his nearly whispered accusation (''You don't know how I feel'') reads like a shout-and an admission that even the most pointed wit will protect you only so much.

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