Stansfield’s “All Around the World” was one...

Stansfield’s “All Around the World” was one of the most delicious-sounding singles of 1990. Imbued with a winning self-assurance, it had an inviting soulfulness, and Stansfield’s smoky, seductive voice seemed to promise great and sophisticated things.

If you teamed this style-conscious Brit with songwriters who could spur her on to even grander and riskier heights, who knows? She might turn out to be the blue-eyed ‘90s soul queen that many predicted she could become.

So much for predictions. Stansfield teams again here with the writers-producers she worked with on “World”--Ian Devaney and Andy Morris--and they’ve come up with the kind of songs that suggest this trio doesn’t get out all that much. Rather than explore any new territory, Stansfield delivers songs so middle of the road and uninvolving that it takes repeated listenings to find any impact in them.

For every song like the sultry, sax-infused “I Will Be Waiting,” or the equally appealing “Make Love to Ya,” there are groaners like “Time to Make You Mine,” a torch song on which Stansfield confuses heavy breathing with sex appeal. (So much for sophistication.) It will take more than this to make “World” seem like more than beginner’s luck.

* * LISA STANSFIELD “Real Love”

Arista