This is not the time for flying underwear. These are not the days of velocitous panties. Tom Jones is out of the delicates game. Goodbye, farewell, amen to the Fruit of the Loom guys.

Instead, at the age of 70, the once-thrusty Welsh Wonder has relocated his growly baritone from the glitz of Vegas and all those squealing, well-armed fans to a church on the road from Memphis to the devil's crossroads. It's salvation time, ladies. Throw alms, not undies.

Jones' new album Praise & Blame, which hits stores on Tuesday, is a bold, engaging Johnny Cash-ing of Jones, who has been liberated from his typical Sex Bomb shackles by Ethan Johns, producer of such kudzu-covered realists as Kings of Leon and Ray LaMontagne.

But whereas Cash's voice was beautifully broken when he recorded all those bare American covers with Rick Rubin, Jones is very much a roaring lion in winter. He grew up in Wales listening to our blues, our gospel, our God-fearing men and women with wicked ways, and you can tell this music still burns in his heart. As a result, when he feels the burbling spirit, so does his band, including the keys of the immortal Booker T.

This is not a quiet rumination; this is testifying. There may not be a bolder noise in popular music this year than Jones and his gutbucket pugilists taking on John Lee Hooker's Burning Hell (LISTEN), which benefits from no overdubs, no studio trickery — just a bare-fisted haymaker to the ears. My word, is that song a mighty yawp!

And just because it's church doesn't mean it can't cook: Jones' take on Jessie Mae Hemphill's Lord, Help the Poor and Needy is built with a engine that chugs to a furious finish.

Even when Jones quiets down, it's all relative. His pensive takes on Bob Dylan's What Good Am I? and the traditional Nobody's Fault but Mine are given a percussive force to match the singer's full-contact penance. There are no synths, no wink-wink puns, no naughty grunts. And yet, it's still very much a Tom Jones album.

Jones doesn't do subtle, that's for sure.

Come to think of it, these songs will fit in just fine at his overwrought Vegas shows. After all, there aren't many singers who can make soul-saving sound like a sexy midnight sport.