(***) JOHN MELLENCAMP, “Dance Naked”; <i> Mercury</i>

A carefree--in some ways almost reckless--spirit informs Mellencamp’s second album in nine months. It’s the work of a man whose huge hits came several albums ago. Released from most of his own and others’ commercial expectations, the prairie pop singer has rummaged through the stages of his career (dumb-boy rocker, socially conscious rocker, iconoclast rocker) to produce an eclectic, disarmingly straightforward--though surprisingly brief at 29 minutes--album.

Most exhilarating is the title cut, a primordial sentiment expressed a million times before, but rarely with such unabashed openness: I want you to dance naked / So I can see you / I’d like to get to know you / You don’t have to act naughty. The music, unadorned and powerful, matches this lyrical simplicity.

While nothing else has quite the impact of this song, “When Margaret Comes to Town” is Mellencamp at his most sly, an eminently hummable song whose lyrics hit all of a sudden, with a wink. The only disappointment is the duet with funktress Me’Shell NdegeOcello on Van Morrison’s “Wild Night.” On an album otherwise free of contrivance, Mellencamp’s pairing with the controversial media darling of the moment smacks of hype.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).