TINA TURNER “Foreign Affair.” Capitol ***:***** Great Balls of Fire:**** Knockin’ on Heaven’s:*** Good Vibrations:** Maybe Baby:* Ain’t That a Shame

The queen of the rock comebacks’ first album in three years doesn’t wield the fleshed-out character, drama and thematic power of her ground-breaking 1985 “Private Dancer,” but it does offer a pretty specific view of a rock ‘n’ roll woman of “a certain age”--a phrase Turner herself uses on one track. On “The Best”--a flat-out declaration of love and obsession that could have been even wilder and more anthemic than it is--Turner gives a sweatily exultant performance and doesn’t seem shy at all about getting swept away.

“Private Dancer’s” strength was in seeming frankly autobiographical. The flaw of this album is that not enough of the songs appear to have been written with a feel for this particular woman’s personal and professional history. When songs here do work, like “Be Tender With Me, Baby”--which could serve as a belated female response to Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness”--it’s due more to the allure of Turner’s own brand of star power than to the material itself.

She may be based in Europe these days, but Turner comes across on this album like a very Southern-sounding belle primed for old-fashioned chivalry, fidelity and a little TLC. “As a couple, we were quite handsome,” she says in “Not Enough Romance,” and that’s exactly the type of language you’d expect someone of her station in life to use.

What saves the album are cuts like “Feeling Like Rain,” which gives off a dark and torrential shower of neo-blues. “Private Dancer,” it’s not, but Turner still manages to retain a firm grip on her grande dame of rock crown.