This Is Me...Then

Lopez insists that she is still the same down-to-earth girl that emerged from the Bronx a decade before mega-stardom hit: "I used to have a little / now I have a lot," she chirps, before cautioning: "Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got / I'm still Jenny from the block." Such a claim stretches credulity given her well-documented status as a true diva, but "Jenny from the Block" shows more pizzazz and humour than anything else on the album, with the exception of her saucy duet with LL Cool J on "All I Have."

Elsewhere This Is Me…Then serves up a recycled paean to 1970s soul, an anaemic cover of Carly Simon's "You Belong to Me" and cloying ballads inspired by Lopez's new inamorato, actor Ben Affleck. Lopez dedicated the disc--for which she wrote nine songs--to Affleck and she includes a far-too-personal and gooey love song to him titled "Dear Ben". Here she declares: "You'll always be my lust, my love, my man, my child, my friend and my king." There's plenty of love here, but what's missing is the verve and crackle of Lopez's earlier stuff. --Jaan Uhelszki