JENNIFER LOPEZ On the 6 (WORK Group) *

First things first: Jennifer Lopez, best known for her acting skills (as well as her sweet and juicy booty) has lost too much goddamn weight! If the idea was to sex up her MTV video "If You Had My Love," then the price was too high, because now the booty that launched a thousand ships has sadly become a shadow of its former self. That aside, on Jenny's debut disc, On the 6, she comes off as a hiphop Gloria Estefan (which shouldn't be construed as a compliment). Her voice, while certainly not annoying, is too thin to feed the fire this type of salsa requires. On the up side, her lyrics are no worse than Madonna's, and every song is better than anything by fellow actor-turned-singer Eddie Murphy. And in the liner notes there are plenty of pix of Jenny cavorting around in her underpants. Call me nuts, but it just ain't enough. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY

BLAQUE Blaque (Track Masters/Columbia) **

Like their mentor/producer--TLC's Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes--Blaque has sass a-plenty! And like TLC, Blaque is made up of three young women who meld harmony, sex, and rap into radio-friendly hiphop. However, unlike TLC, all three can sing; and though Blaque can put together some dead-on harmonies, they miss the magic TLC occasionally pops out ("No Scrubs") when the group's disparate talents finally come together. Regardless, Blaque's talents are not inconsequential, and they have a serious way of mixing bad-ass attitude with sap to make ballads tolerable. And when the girls start talkin' 'bout doin' the "boom baby boom" (in "808"), believe me, it's enough to turn even a dead man out. WSH

GRAND MAL Maledictions (Slash) ***

More than half the bands trying to "make it" out of New York play, for some mysterious reason, in the style of disco-era glam acts (maybe because these were the last bands to "make it" out of New York?), but they end up sounding like late Cheap Trick deep-album cuts. Maledictions kicks off with "Superstars," which fits the bill but packs a surprising wallop. Then "Whole Lotta Nothing" serves up the obligatory attempt to build a hard blooze riff around a beat loop, but Grand Mal pull it off--the way they slide into the bridge causes chills, it's so slick. Next, they pull out the piano for "Out On Bail," and the song actually sounds way more like the '69 Stones than the '90 Black Crowes. I'm sold. Authentically filthy, impossibly--yet justifiably--confident, and sexy enough to transcend nostalgia, this is the real thing. ADAM HEIMLICH

TO ROCOCO ROT The Amateur View

(Mute/City Slang) **

Imagine Eno, Can, and early Aphex Twin all rolled into one ambitious latecomer, having its ambient ass constantly kissed, instead of dismissed, by the mainstream. That's--sort of!--the German chill-out room electronica scene. Despite having created nothing but a few dozen albums worth of drolly titled "soundscapes," these Krautravers attract fawning attention from English dance music critics. Swooning over the latest "speed garage" 12-inch could only take one so far, it seems.

To Rococo Rot share a band member with Kriedler, whose 1996 album Weekend is the release from this scene most worth hearing. The Amateur View constantly flirts with the possibility of being hopelessly ideology-bound and boring (i.e., German), but mostly succeeds, if only because it changes rather often. These guys have no shortage of mildly intriguing weird sounds to fill up your room. When it's working (e.g., if the listener is on drugs, or just bionically attentive, yet relaxed), The Amateur View turns vacant space into a field of morphing shape and color. Mostly pastels. AH

STEREOPHONICS Performance and Cocktails (V2) **

Stereophonics have already been on the covers of those publications Everett True used to write for, and they're on Richard Branson's label. The magic of bands that are new and big in England is that they appear contrived and plastic to an extent that our own new phony music, camouflaged by the similarly patterned, overpriced garbage all around it, can't possibly match. Stereophonics scream Nirvana-plus-Oasis!! louder than anyone has any business shouting something so stupid. But the foreign factor makes the contrivance excusable somehow, in that it's so unavoidably obvious as to preclude a sense of shame. Britons would surely feel embarrassed for the band if Stereophonics meant any malice with their savagely overt derivativeness. Or maybe England's own camouflage factor is hiding the ill will? In any case, to these 'Merican ears, Stereophonics are quite proficient at their soulless little scrunge exercise. AH

KENNY DREW, JR. SEXTET Crystal River (TCB Music) ****

Forty-two years after their famous fathers teamed up on the all-time jazzhead classic Blue Train, Ravi Coltrane (soprano and tenor sax) and Kenny Drew, Jr. (piano) have come together to make their own album. Although there is positive attention focused on their famous names, it's not all happy nods and winks being the son of an old-time jazz master: John Coltrane died when his son was only two, while Kenny Drew left his son to be raised by grandparents upon moving to Copenhagen in the early '60s. Despite being ditched by famous musician fathers, the pair still lust for bop, and the fortunate result is this greatly competent album. Like his father, pianist Kenny Drew, Kenny Jr. demonstrates an impressive ability to hold dense chords with his left hand and shag out long, flowing melodies and improvisations with his right. This album is unabashed and uncompromised hard bop, with extra fine moments from trumpeter Michael Philip Mossman and vibraphonist Steve Nelson. So if you've got a dime set aside for straight bop jazz this year, Crystal River is the album to get. It's a Swiss release, so if you're having trouble getting a hold of it, check out www.tcb.ch for ordering information. NATHAN THORNBURGH

VARIOUS ARTISTS Essential Blues Vol.3

(House Of Blues/Platinum) ***

This a double disc collection o' urban 'n' "rock"-based blues, spannin' the last 40 years--and it do NOT suck ass! Fact, it a goot mix o' new 'n' old, presented without pretension, and NOT reliant on "standards"... even gotta goot book of info too. However, fer y'all geeky, purist a-holes like myself, mosta this action you done heard, 'r you might say it too heavy on newer mo' "rock" action. But I WAS sooprised at the balance o' new versus vintage. Anyways, fer those int'rested it a goot place to start, as it got "known names" 'n' "no names." Hell, maybe it'll even git'cha diggin' into some blues back catalogs! MIKE NIPPER