IN BRIEF : *** Kimm Rogers, “Soundtrack of My Life,” Island.<i> Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic). : </i>

If this album of inner-directed character studies and folk-flavored social observation seems to shout “Tracy Chapman Redux,” Rogers has enough charm and individuality to pull it off. Her woody voice isn’t the prettiest, and her penchant for using lots and lots and lots of words sometimes gets distracting. Yet there’s a winsome freshness to this L.A.-Nashville-L.A. singer-songwriter’s material, and even when she lays on the sensitivity a little too thick, she quickly pulls herself out with a vocal wink or a melodic smile.