In Brief

* * 1/2 Troop, “Deepa,” Atlantic. This record’s 15 tracks aren’t in the mold of the dance-oriented “Mamacita,” the hit single that helped this group break from the dime-a-dozen R&B-pop; pack back in 1988. But whether a bunch of introspective ballads constitute artistic growth is debatable--or as some female voice in the between-song-mix demandingly puts it: “Deepa? . . . Deepa than what ?!” It’s a good question that Troop never really answers, despite the smoothly persuasive “Set Me Free” and “Only When I Laugh.”