Jennifer Lopez plays it safe
Her new album features family-friendly anthems and test-marketed tunes

Published on Sunday, Oct 21, 2007

BRAVE Jennifer Lopez Epic Jennifer Lopez has always protested a bit too much in her music.

When she declares I'm Real, it's time to start looking for the seams. When she reminds us she's still Jenny from the Block, her doubts about all the rocks that she's got must be getting serious. So when she names her new album Brave, you have to wonder what she's afraid of.

No doubt tabloid watchers will guess all these songs about the glories of coupledom (''Heartbreaks are overrated; Stay together, that's the new trend,'') mean trouble with husband Marc Anthony. But that's too obvious a reading she has always sung about the glories of true love.

What's probably more telling on Brave is the music. As is the case with the rest of Lopez's public life these days, she is playing it safer than she once did.

Gone are the edgy beats and the prominent rap cameos of her previous album, 2005's Rebirth, replaced by lots of radio-friendly dance pop and delicate ballads. Her streetwise, catch-phrase-creating lyrics have morphed into family-friendly anthems such as I Need Love, where she says she's ''sick and tired of frontin''' and advocates less nightclubbing and more cuddling.

There's nothing wrong with any of that really. The first half of Brave works this new strategy so well it builds Lopez's best run of songs since 2001's J.Lo. Despite clunky lyrics, Stay Together is a sleek slice of throwback dance pop, complete with flute flourishes and loads of Latin percussion. Hold It, Don't Drop It elevates flecks of Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson, including the staccato horns and funky bass lines, into pure disco grandeur. And Do It Well is a high-energy good time that blends the best bits of Love Don't Cost a Thing and Waiting for Tonight.

It's head and shoulders above Rebirth, but after a while, it gets to be a bit much. The second half of Brave plays a little too test-marketed. I Need Love isn't as crisp as the earlier songs. The ballad Wrong When You're Gone is a little too sappy. And Be Mine lopes lazily over what sounds like a sample from Smashmouth's All Star.

Maybe it's because Brave is Lopez's second album of the year, following Spanish release Como Ama Una Mujer, but the second half sounds like she ran out of time or creative gas.

And the whole project has the feel of someone desperately trying to give the people what she thinks they want, instead of offering up what she wants.

Lopez is a good enough actress to pass these songs off as genuine. But she performs so much better when she's not acting, when she's still Jenny from the Block sashaying across the stage, using her ambition and sass to drive her.

She walls a lot of that off on this album, making it not Brave, as much as it is Safe.

Glenn Gamboa Newsday

BRAVE Jennifer Lopez Epic Jennifer Lopez has always protested a bit too much in her music.

When she declares I'm Real, it's time to start looking for the seams. When she reminds us she's still Jenny from the Block, her doubts about all the rocks that she's got must be getting serious. So when she names her new album Brave, you have to wonder what she's afraid of.

No doubt tabloid watchers will guess all these songs about the glories of coupledom (''Heartbreaks are overrated; Stay together, that's the new trend,'') mean trouble with husband Marc Anthony. But that's too obvious a reading she has always sung about the glories of true love.

What's probably more telling on Brave is the music. As is the case with the rest of Lopez's public life these days, she is playing it safer than she once did.

Gone are the edgy beats and the prominent rap cameos of her previous album, 2005's Rebirth, replaced by lots of radio-friendly dance pop and delicate ballads. Her streetwise, catch-phrase-creating lyrics have morphed into family-friendly anthems such as I Need Love, where she says she's ''sick and tired of frontin''' and advocates less nightclubbing and more cuddling.

There's nothing wrong with any of that really. The first half of Brave works this new strategy so well it builds Lopez's best run of songs since 2001's J.Lo. Despite clunky lyrics, Stay Together is a sleek slice of throwback dance pop, complete with flute flourishes and loads of Latin percussion. Hold It, Don't Drop It elevates flecks of Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson, including the staccato horns and funky bass lines, into pure disco grandeur. And Do It Well is a high-energy good time that blends the best bits of Love Don't Cost a Thing and Waiting for Tonight.

It's head and shoulders above Rebirth, but after a while, it gets to be a bit much. The second half of Brave plays a little too test-marketed. I Need Love isn't as crisp as the earlier songs. The ballad Wrong When You're Gone is a little too sappy. And Be Mine lopes lazily over what sounds like a sample from Smashmouth's All Star.

Maybe it's because Brave is Lopez's second album of the year, following Spanish release Como Ama Una Mujer, but the second half sounds like she ran out of time or creative gas.

And the whole project has the feel of someone desperately trying to give the people what she thinks they want, instead of offering up what she wants.

Lopez is a good enough actress to pass these songs off as genuine. But she performs so much better when she's not acting, when she's still Jenny from the Block sashaying across the stage, using her ambition and sass to drive her.

She walls a lot of that off on this album, making it not Brave, as much as it is Safe.

Glenn Gamboa Newsday