Steve Wynn's new CD, Sweetness and Light, is the record he wanted and tried to record in the early 1990s. Back then, over two records, Kerosene Man and Dazzling Display, he enlisted the help of Peter Buck, John Wesley Harding and Johnette Napolitano, practitioners of a kind of music that was no longer very alternative at all. While Wynn's music with his original band, the Dream Syndicate, had been built around feedback and guitar noise, he was exploring new radio- friendly territory. The results were slick, pretty (with their horns and strings) and inconsistent.

One had to wonder whether the Dream Syndicate sound was dead, music from a younger man who had since grown up and settled down. If so, maturity and these friends in high places didn't suit him.

But in 1996, he found the rush of frenzied guitars once more on Melting in the Dark. With the help of Come, a Boston band which practices this kind of sound regularly, it was easy to think he was back where he belonged. Melting in the Dark is a brilliant record, cowpunk music wallowing in the sort of darkness and recriminations that had been Wynn's forte. Still there were definite pop flourishes that made the record more than just a return to the Dream Syndicate.

On Sweetness and Light the evolution continues with longer strides. But, unlike the early '90s releases, this time Wynn's songwriting has caught up to his pop intentions. On "Silver Lining," "How's My Little Girl" and the title track, it sounds as if he's been listening to Tom Petty all his life. Of course, it's neither that polished nor mainstream. And that's the point: On Sweetness and Light, Wynn doesn't sound like he's trying to impress his established pop peers by writing clever music.

Wynn's departure from his Velvet Underground white noise fixation, which didn't truly begin until Melting in the Dark, continues here. While not as spectacular as Melting in the Dark, Sweetness and Light is a natural progression for Wynn. May he grow old none too gracefully.

-James Coyle