Like its predecessor Bathhouse Betty, Bette Midler's Bette spends a good deal of its playing time on ambitious, smartly chosen songs. Even the biggest pop-ballad success here is a Dionne Warwick-style take on the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach, weeper "God Give Me Strength", rather than a dire work of schlock such as "The Wind Beneath My Wings". Elsewhere, Midler continues to indulge her cheeky side--the album's working title was Bette, Bath and Beyond--with KirstyMacColl's Cuban-influenced "In These Shoes" and a revival of Teddy Pendergrass' classic "Love TKO" with an impressively throaty vocal. The handful of Hallmark-esque tunes near disc's end doesn't diminish the subtlety and taste of the rest. --Park Slope