Like cotton candy, this music is made from air, sugar and artificial colour.

Just the thing you want after a long day at Disneyland - a tasty wad of fluff forgotten as soon as it's ingested, except for that lingering sticky feeling.

If the attractive and highly bankable Jennifer Lopez is looking for respect, she should stick to acting. She was pretty good in The Cell, and her lip-sync dance routine on the American Music Awards was ... well, has the term "amazing assets" been used enough? It has? Sorry.

When it comes to music, however, Lopez is just another generic pretty face enshrined in the cookie-cutter dance-pop sound of the moment. On her second CD, she's the star of a plasticized pop confection literally piled with bells and whistles where songs should've been. With predictably steamy lyrics, melodies that make nursery rhymes look sophisticated and production straight from the Wal-Mart school of music (one can sense the heavy hand of boyfriend Puff Daddy among too many other cooks in the kitchen), it represents the worst of what "R&B" has become: Too much rhythm, not enough blues. What ever happened to a single voice singing one soulful phrase? What ever happened to subtlety? Most vocals you hear in the R&B genre today are layer upon layer of warbling trills devoid of meaning or real emotion. This album is no different. Lopez - a competent singer, no more - only musters any sort of passion in the line, "Dance with me! DJ, if you please." Priorities.

A few watered-down Latin grooves make this barely worth listening to, along with the ballad Come Over, which is guaranteed to steam up a few bedroom windows. The rest is pure pap.

Of course, nothing I can say will prevent this CD from rocketing unopposed to the top of the charts after it hits the stores on Tuesday.

Track Listing 1. Love Don't Cost A Thing
  2. I'm Real
  3. Play
  4. Walking On Sunshine
  5. Ain't It Funny
  6. Carino
  7. Come Over
  8. We Gotta Talk
  9. That's Not Me
  10. Dance With Me
  11. Secretly
  12. I'm Gonna Be Alright
  13. That's The Way
  14. Dame (Touch Me)
  15. Si Ya Se Acabo