Even without some help from her friends, Stevie Nicks finds herself again.

Every terminally pampered rock star should have a realization like the one Stevie Nicks describes in "That Made Me Stronger." A chronicle of the steps Nicks took to make "Trouble in Shangri-la", her first album since 1994, the song centers around a typical rich- person approach to problem solving: her first thought was to hire others to help with the song writing. The chorus tells of one conversation (in interviews, she's said it was with Tom Petty) in which the queen of the gold dust demimonde wheedles & begs: "Well, you know me better than I know myself, could you write this for me?". The response, snapped out over a banging j. Geils-ish rhythm guitar: "No, you write your songs yourself." The lesson: "That made me stronger, that made me hold on to me."

Good thing too. Because unlike other legends in her tax bracket, Nicks actually has something to say for herself after all these years. She's been thinking about the ways her identity has been sacrificed to (or subsumed by) love, about the illusions she's held & shed. She's put those ideas down in plain words & plaintive melodies, devised song structures that rely on genuine hooks & unusual interludes & concocted a crafty update of California pop, shot through with the insights & ravings of a sometimes-lonely desert mystic.

Still, the disciplined songs of "Trouble" occasionally scream "Warning! Career Rehabilitation in Progress!" There are the inevitable trips back to past glories (most odiously the title track, which sounds like a computer-generated composite of previous Nicks Hits), & musical elements transplanted from her bellowing Eighties arena songs. There are contributions from present-day disciples (Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan) & a big helping of Sheryl Crow, who co- wrote several songs & produced five gems, including the ethereal "Sorcerer", a gorgeous reverie that recalls the contemplative mood Nicks first explored in the pre-Fleetwood Mac days of Buckingham/Nicks.

Mostly, there is a wise woman with a wickeder-than-ever voice who admits to being "something of a dreamer". Though she's suffered scorn for that cosmic mumbo-jumbo that helped make her famous, Nicks won't back down: One of Trouble's wondrous songs, "Planets of the Universe", expresses worry about global warming in disarmingly eloquent terms.

Still, most of the songs are about earthly love & devotion, & that's where her artistic growth is inescapable. Having once accepted such polarized Venus/Mars definitions of love as "give to me your leather, take from me my lace", Nicks has discovered a whole realm of nuance: she effortlessly expresses awe ("Everyday") & regret ("I Miss You") & with the whispery "Its Only Love" captures relationship tumult with the kind of hushed phrases and feathery touches that often escaped her back when.

She closes "That Made Me Stronger" by repeating the mantra "I don't want to go back & nothing you can say can change my mind" & even though its just an ordinary pop vow, you hear the conviction in her voice, & you believe her. Because it sounds like she understands that she has no other choice.