"Perhaps the biggest difference with this album", observes Greg Laswell of his new Take A Bow, "is that I'm not miserable." And while we're happy that the SoCal songwriter has completed what is in many ways a closing chapter in his ongoing saga of love and loss (the aftermath of a painful divorce fueled much of his two prior albums), we also are selfishly aware that Laswell's bruising pain has also yielded some pretty amazing music. No one does that special morose melancholy -- right down to the gruff, hangdog vocals -- quite like he does. Who else could take Cyndi Lauper's sparkly ode to teenage hormones -- "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" -- and turn it into a dark, dirge-like ballad?

So it is with a sigh of relief that we report that while Laswell's new Take A Bow, arriving May 4 via Vanguard, may lack a certain misery quotient lyrically, we've still got some impressive and inspired songwriting chops on display. Recorded in usual DIY fashion at his recently relocated Arizona studio, Bow's dozen, mostly mid-tempo new songs (all but one self-produced) have that dense, richly textured keyboard-soaked sound that we've come to expect from Laswell. From the ticking Coldplay-ish piano lines and gradually building force of "Off I Go" -- the song that closed last season's "Gray Anatomy" finale -- to the gorgeous waltz of a title track, Take A Bow may not break new ground or color outside of the lines stylistically. But its mainstream melodic charms still deliver songs of some emotional heft, the work of an artisan rather than artiste. And we're pretty sure Laswell's just fine with that. Highly recommended.

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Greg Laswell - "Off I Go" (from the album Take A Bow)

Greg Laswell - "Take Everything" (with Ingrid Michaelson) (from the album Take A Bow)

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