There’s nary a twang on Rosanne Cash’s latest, a slickly produced pop singer-songwriter outing. For Cash, the disc is a triumph — a comeback after a battle with a polyp on her vocal cords. For her fans, especially those of the brash, brassy turns of voice they heard on 1996’s Ten Song Demo (Capitol) and her version of her father Johnny Cash’s " Tennessee Flat Top Box, " it may be less so.

Her lyrics about desperation and intimacy are poignant in " I’ll Change for You, " a call-and-response with Steve Earle, and " Rules of Travel, " which has a memorable if somewhat illogically written chorus in which Cash awkwardly counts down said rules. But the polyp seems to have left her without a dynamic range. Her singing, though full of melody, is all soft-focus and warm, without a dash of grit. The result is an album with no emotional peaks and valleys — a pretty, easy-listening ride over the flatlands of Cash’s heart. It doesn’t help that the Craig Northey–written opener, " Beautiful Pain, " is light and frothy, with its " ball and chain " imagery and its assertion that the singer’s wayward lover can " go back to her. " Johnny Cash brings some needed gravity to " September When It Comes, " a contemplation of mortality. Unfortunately, with his " Hurt " video plastered across MTV, Johnny has just become the poster senior for dissipation.

All this carping takes nothing away from the lovely tones of Rosanne’s laid-back performance, or from the disc’s expertly crafted arrangements. But there’s little excitement in these 11 songs.