In Brief

* * 1/2 “The Coast Is Clear,” Tracy Lawrence, Atlantic Nashville. The Arkansas singer benefits by heeding advice often given to young ballplayers who try to knock every pitch out of the park: just meet the ball. Lawrence eases back on some of the vocal showboating he’s been guilty of and connects more often on modestly scaled tunes, including “In a Moment of Weakness.”

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).