Jake Shimabukuro, 'Peace Love Ukulele'

Thanks in part to Jason Mraz and Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister,’’ we currently live in a ukulele-friendly pop marketplace. That makes it a good time to be Jake Shimabukuro, who approaches the four-stringed, two-octave instrument with a fleet-fingered, almost classical mastery. Unfortunately, on “Peace Love Ukulele,’’ he simply doesn’t have enough imagination as a writer or arranger to justify the effort. “Bring Your Adz’’ has a New Age rock kick to it, but “Trapped 2010’’ and several others are pan-stylistic slumgullions of fusion instrumental genres that treat the ukulele as a condensed-range Spanish guitar. He has better luck with “Bohemian Rhapsody,’’ tackling one of the most dynamically diverse songs in the rock/pop canon with one of the most dynamically limited instruments. Remarkably, he captures the full sonic spectrum of the original with a solo performance that manages to fully evoke every constituent part, from the melancholy piano to the operatic harmonies to the headbanging climax. It’s such an impressive trick that Shimabukuro can’t resist including the song twice. (Out tomorrow) MARC HIRSH