*** Pete Droge

SPACEY AND SHAKIN

(Fifty Seven/Epic)

Resilience goes a long way in the record business, as Pete Droge learned after watching his 1996 sophomore release, Find a Door, go virtually nowhere in the midst of Rick Rubin's dissolving American Recordings. On his third album, Droge is reflective and back in the saddle. "That could drag you down/Cause this is just a game/It's such a pissy town," he sings on "Eyes on the Ceiling." Spacey's packed with confident guitar rockers like "Mile of Fence" and "Evan's Radio," but Droge tries a little tenderness, too, in the orchestrated beauty of "I Want To Go Away" and the Procol Harumesque love song "Walking by My Side." His voice splits the difference between Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Tom Petty. And classic-rock fans will find his reliance on a familiar guitars-and- keyboards aesthetic a refreshing contrast to the much-hyped electronica explosion.

-- Mark Woodlief