Rebirth

Each of Jennifer Lopez's albums has been pointedly and symbolically titled, from On The 6 to J. Lo to This Is Me... Then and her latest, Rebirth, is no exception. It is another chapter in "The Story of J. Lo." The last time Lopez made an album in 2002, she was deeply in love with actor Ben Affleck. But couple’s engagement was called off in early 2004. Following inevitable overexposure at the hands of a vicarious-living public and greed-driven media, Lopez undoubtedly felt the need to reinvent herself. Lopez rebounded quickly with a marriage to Latin pop singer Marc Anthony and with the new romance came an opportunity to restart her career – hence Rebirth.

Like Madonna and Janet Jackson, people don’t listen to J.Lo for the poignant lyrics — she’s best when riding a dance groove as on the James Brown-sampled single Get Right and the funky club thumper Whatever You Wanna Do, both courtesy of Beyonce’s Crazy in Love scribe Rich Harrison. While she doesn't avoid the subject of her highly publicized romantic life, she does bury two seemingly confessional ballads at the end of the record (not counting the album-concluding reprise of the opening single, "Get Right"). You may find interest in He'll Be Back (a tune not written by Lopez, but a breakup song that certainly recalls the Bennifer saga) and a collaboration with her new husband (Can't Believe) This Is Me with arrangement of piano, and electric guitars. Apart from those ballads, Rebirth is a sleek, sexy blast, straight-ahead dance album, alternating between sweet, breezy pop tunes like the irresistible Still Around and hard-driving club tracks like the surprisingly heavy, infectious Cherry Pie. The cogent I Got U and Still Around reprise the more adult sound of Lopez's last album, to varying degrees of success, while Hold You Down, featuring Fat Joe, harks back to her collaboration-heavy remix album The Reel me. Lopez's voice is best suited for pop and dance formats, as opposed to R&B and hip-hop.

She may not be a flashy singer, but she's appealing on record precisely because she and her collaborators know those limitations and present them in tuneful packages with big, exciting beats. Since it doesn't deviate from the blueprint she's followed on her first three albums, it's hard to call this record a literal creative rebirth, it is nowhere near as gut-wrenching a break-up album, but song for song, Rebirth has more energy and better hooks than her other albums. It may not be deep, but it sure is fun – and after the tumult of 2003 and 2004, Lopez sure does deserve to have a little fun.