J. Lo

01/25/2001 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Ken Micallef

Is Jennifer Lopez afraid of her own bodacious sex appeal? Sure, she shows off her big booty and all the rest of it like the savvy media mogul she is. But, in projecting her bold sex-kitten persona, is she actually revealing a teasing ice princess? You might think that her new "J. Lo" moniker would lead to something down-and-dirty on her sophomore effort. But whether she's boasting and bleating over vibrant R&B, cooing on salsa send-ups, or acting little-girl provocative on some incredibly silly ballads, we get no sense that Lopez would know what do to with it even if it "feels like it's gonna explode" as she whispers in "Secretly." When former Disney Mouskateers generate more heat than a Hollywood sex symbol, what we have here is failure to communicate.

When Lopez abandons her carefully coifed pretense, she actually has fun, even if she can't sing a lick. "Love Don't Cost A Thing," "I'm Real," "Play," "We Gotta Talk," and "That's The Way" are infectious dance-floor fillers modeled on the Jacksons, P-Funk, and contemporary R&B. The songs are so vivacious all J. Lo need do is stay onboard. Her attempts to pay homage to her Latino roots mostly fall flat; J. Lo's thin voice and stilted rhythms can't compete with the exotic grooves and lusty air of even these machine-made salsa-lite tracks.

But when J. Lo tries to seduce us, we really know she's in trouble. Instead of the searing come-on we might expect, her yelps and purrs in "Come Over" only produce a kind of nausea, like your kid sister's best friend practicing cliched sex talk. "Baby I need to see you, please. Come over." Uhhhh. "Secretly" is even worse, J. Lo asking "Do I look sexy to you?" Her vocals are so mannered, self-conscious, and limited, there is no way to gloss over the facts, except when booming dance grooves rule the mix.

Does J. Lo need therapy to get in touch with her sensuous side, or has Puffy simply stolen the vaunted Lopez voodoo? Jennifer Lopez phone home.