It's to Patti Scialfa's considerable credit that she's launched a potent solo career in the shadow of husband Bruce Springsteen, and in doing so has not tried to chase after anything but the mature kind of music she naturally makes. The Garden State native is at heart a Greenwich Village troubadour with a soul of . . . well, soul, the classic variety from Memphis as distilled by scores of Jersey shore joints. The latter gets a particularly strong ride on "Play It As It Lays," Scialfa's third and most accomplished solo album. She makes her sources clear on the Chiffons-referencing "Like Any Woman Would," the "Sally Go Round the Roses" snippet in "The Word" and the Janis Ian "Society's Child" nod in "Town Called Heartbreak," while "Play Around" sounds like a lost Lieber & Stoller tune for the Drifters.—Gary Graff