Sam Phillips' new album, "Zero Zero Zero", is as good as Jason Falkner's new album was supposed to have been and as good as XTC's new album is. That is to say, very.

Well, shall we call this a "best of"? It's hard to call a collection like "Zero Zero Zero" "greatest hits" or "biggest hits" (quick: name one of her songs). According to a Virgin Records press release, these songs are her favorites from the Sam Phillips library, including singles, album tracks (from "The Indescribable Wow," "Cruel Inventions," "Martinis and Bikinis" and "Omnipop"), and a few obligatory unreleased tracks and remixes. "Best of" sounds about right.

Here's the rundown: hooky pop, endless overdubs, a voice on the cusp of Sheryl Crow and Amy Grant, all brightness and slickness, and sparse (but literate) lyrics that snap right into the power chords.

At the bar last Wednesday, staff writer William S. Repsher said, "Y'know, Sam Phillips doesn't do it for me." I tried to change his mind, but I was on my third Bacardi-and-Coke and slurred out a feeble defense with the phrase "power pop" in it. He's really into Cheap Trick, you see, and it's too bad I couldn't make the case for Phillips between cocktail gulps, because here's the genre all grown up, via Matthew Sweet's drollery and so forth, and because I think it's impossible to dislike music this tight and well-produced.

I also played it for my boyfriend, but he was too busy playing with his Simpsons sound files to listen, and then he got a phone call and had to turn the stereo down.

Even back when WNEW-FM's Vin Scelsa was spinning Sam Phillips and I'd be more interested leafing through "Mojo," reading a list of Polly Harvey's favorite Captain Beefheart songs, I never, ever thought Sam Phillips was bad. Dar Williams? Fuck, yes. But I never, ever thought Phillips was awesome, and it's a shame, because she is.

Song 1, "Disappearing Act," is pure "Blood & Chocolate"-era Costello. "Holding On To The Earth" has echoes of Suzanne Vega's "Blood Makes Noise"-that repetitive bass line bouncing down a fifth from the root, those muted, screechy guitars, percussion qua percussion, not just the producer's girlfriend doing handclaps. In this case, the producer is T Bone Burnett (on his production résumé: Counting Crows, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Los Lobos, among others.) Phillips is his wife, and she's much more than a hand-clapper.

"Zero Zero Zero" shows the best work of a singer/songwriter with talent, confidence, and a knack for getting songs into your head and keeping them there for days.

Sam Phillips' "Zero Zero Zero" will be released March 23rd on Virgin Records.