GLEN CAMPBELL
Meet Glen Campbell
(Capitol)
*** 1/2 (out of 5)

My parents’ old stereo wasn’t just a stereo; it was an honest-to-God piece of furniture, heavy, wooden, as big as a coffin, with burgundy velvet covering the speakers that reminded me of church. But the music I associate it with isn’t hymns but the country-pop crossover records by Bobbie Gentry, Anne Murray, and Glen Campbell that my mother liked to listen to.

Meet Glen Campbell, the new record by the 1970s’ most apple-cheeked chart-topper, would have sounded great on that stereo. It recreates that slick, earphone-filling “AM Gold” sound of three decades past, but this time out, Campbell is singing songs by The Foo Fighters, Travis, and Green Day.

And the whole unlikely-sounding project works beautifully. Campbell’s voice has aged very gracefully; he brings a gentle tenderness to The Replacements’ “Sadly Beautiful,” and his version of U2’s “All I Want Is You” is majestic without turning bombastic. (Are you listening, Bono?) Maybe his version of The Velvet Underground’s “Jesus” lacks the darker shadings that Johnny Cash might have brought to it, but that’s okay: it’s good to know the Wichita Lineman is still on the line.