MILWAUKEE Elliott Murphy EMIS

OF ALL THE SENSITIVE SINGER-songwriters who've borne the career-killing weight of the "new Dylan" mantle - Eric Andersen, Steve Forbert and Willie Nile among them — Elliott Murphy is perhaps the poetic folk-rocker who's carried it with the most grace and the least notoriety. A veteran of the major labels (Aquashow, his 1973 effort on Polydor, is a lost classic that begs for re-release), Murphy has in the last six years delivered a number of uniformly impressive independent records that have all been well worth searching out. He remains a rarity: a literate song-writer with genuine wit and an acute eye for detail.

His most recent LP, Milwaukee — re-leased by his devoted fan club, the Elliott Murphy Information Society — includes two tracks produced by Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison. One of them, "Out for the Killing," is a won-derfully moody, midtempo number that's the most radio-friendly track Murphy's come up with in years; the breathy-voiced Murphy, whose songs are sometimes too busy for their own good, brings across a vaguely menacing number that's as interesting musically as it is lyrically.

Much of the rest of Milwaukee is nearly as good: "Runnin' Around" is a slow and moving tale of romantic discontent, "Clean It Up" rocks with sturdy conviction while telling a similar tale, and "Niagara Falls" is simply the most moving tribute to a fallen woman since the J. Geils Band's "Angel in Blue." Throughout the album, Murphy benefits from solid, subtle backing from key-boardist Art Labriola, drummer Jesse Chamberlain and, particularly, his long-time bassist Ernie Brooks, formerly of the original Modern Lovers.

A curmudgeon might take the time to point out that Milwaukee is at least as distinguished as Bob Dylan's most recent album, Knocked Out Loaded. But enough comparisons already — let it suffice to say that, as Milwaukee evinces, Elliott Murphy is just too big a talent to make music in anybody else's shadow.

Milwaukee is available from the Elliott Murphy Information Society, Box 253, Northampton, MA 01061.

• David Wild