Eleven of her juiciest bargains, all plucked ripe and seasoned with smashing sounds, to box one of the best-mixed pop albums that side of the Americas. “J to Tha Lo” succinctly states the obvious - that it contains no song you haven’t heard already. But have you really?! You’re already done with her prophetic “Love Don’t Cost A Thing”, millennial anthem “Waiting For Tonight” and her slickly produced “Play”
Sure they made you feel like dancing, but in their new avatar, they pull you by the painted toe and place you squarely on the disco dais. While each had been produced by various grandmasters before, including her cornrowed Diddy P, this time Cory Rooney and J are the executive producers. So the masterminded use of a mean mixer have staid old numbers like “Walking On Sunshine” and “I’m Real” spouting staccato beats and dynamo turntable scratches that leaves nighttime DJs very little to spin. Of the lot, the Emelio-Estefan-produced “Let’s Get Loud”, which was quite trashy in its first coming, is only made abominable in its second. “Ain’t It Funny” with Ja Rule and Caddilla Tah is perhaps the grooviest in this slowly tempered version. “Alive”, from the soundtrack of the motion picture “Enough”, co-written by hubby Chris Judd, wraps up this sound box with an optimistic ballad, the only to break the otherwise fast tempo.
This article was first published on 10 May 2002.