In Brief

* * * Cyndi Lauper, “Hat Full of Stars,” Epic. If someone had asked 10 years ago which contemporary female artist was most likely to mature into a radio-savvy, solidly enjoyable pop act, a lot of us would have chosen Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry--anyone but the pink-haired thrift-store refugee riding the charts with the novelty-like “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” “Stars” is not the first time Lauper has shown her formidable mainstream pop sensibility--think back to “Time After Time” and “True Colors”--but it is her most consistently tuneful and ambitious album.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).