A Queen Trapped by Her Court : ** ARETHA FRANKLIN “What You See Is What You Sweat” <i> Arista</i> : Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic).

How could anyone have the poor judgment to hook up the comeback-ready Queen of Soul with Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager--as writers and producers--with the intent of making her the Queen of Easy Listening?

Granted, Bacharach and Sager are responsible for only two treacly ballads among her new album’s 10 tracks. Indeed, there are nearly as many different producers as there are songs on the album (including Franklin herself, Narada Michael Walden, Luther Vandross and Michel Legrand, among several others); if the grab-bag approach worked for Whitney Houston, you can almost hear the boardroom figuring, it’ll work for ‘Retha, with a little Hip-Hop Lite here, a lot of maudlin wailing there. Given how many cooks have been brought in to work on this broth, the near-consistency of mediocrity in the arrangements is remarkable.

She does sing the hell out of every number. But whether you want to hear a natural resource squandered on such generically dull new material (plus, opening and closing the album, a sterile and funkless remake of Sly Stone’s “Everyday People” that can’t hold a candle to even the Joan Jett version) depends on your willingness to let talent redeem or transcend its trappings. Mostly, she just sounds trapped.