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ALBUM REVIEW | Pop

Susan Boyle’s ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’

“Britain’s Got Talent’’ alum Susan Boyle covering synthpop gloom anthems “Enjoy the Silence’’ and “Mad World’’ is the type of thing that sends a thousand bloggers into paroxysms of eye-rolling. But if you think that Boyle - a last-chancer whose rise hinged on the narrative of being a frumpy, discarded nobody - can’t identify with feelings of invisibility and dislocation from the society that spawned her, then you weren’t paying attention. “Someone To Watch Over Me’’ has the makings of a perfectly solid mopey-piano-girl album, largely eschewing chest-beating for a coarser-grained approach that serves the singer rather well. Producer Steve Mac shows admirable restraint; the orchestra hovers lightly over a warm piano instead of smothering it on “This Will Be The Year,’’ though Boyle delivers it (and “Return’’ and “You Have to Be There’’) with so much stentorian vulnerability that she sounds like she’s standing on a balcony with a very important message for Argentina. Boyle adds nothing new to “Unchained Melody,’’ but her torchy, defeated “Lilac Wine’’ shows she’s starting to become a stylist, rather than purely a vocalist. (Out today) MARC HIRSH

ESSENTIAL “Lilac Wine’’

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