**** GRAHAM PARKER “Struck By Lightning”, <i> RCA</i>

Anger was the spark for Parker’s memorable ‘70s albums, but it is just as engaging to hear him now as he reaches for--and finds--a measure of equanimity.

While “Struck By Lightning” has a few stormy moments, its overall tone is lighter, conveying a sense of calm and gentleness carried by the music’s rippling merger of soul, folk and occasional country accents. Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding,” Smokey Robinson and early Van Morrison are among the key stylistic and spiritual touchstones here.

Yes, Parker opens with two songs that express deep-seated disgust with nasty wit, as if to show that the angry young man of 1976 hasn’t unduly mellowed.

But this “Lightning” is more given to illuminating Parker’s struggle--with humor an essential tool--to find his way toward an accommodation with a fallen world, and, in the end, toward a world-transcending vision that holds out hope for innocence, decency and inspiration. Parker shows that an angry attack isn’t the only thing that can make an album burn with intensity. His passionate engagement with things that matter resounds, even when the music is gentle.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic).