Tracy Chapman: Matters Of The Heart (Elektra)

I'M ALWAYS prepared to be surprised. I like surprises, me. If, for example, Tracy Chapman made an album — not a terrifically surprising event in itself, I grant you — but just suppose she made an album, and it turned out not to be identical to its predecessors; just suppose. Well, I'd be the first to acknowledge it. The first to be knocked down with a feather. The first to restrain myself from dousing it in the bile that would ordinarily be its due around these parts.