SHAI “Right Back at Cha” MCA* 1/2...

SHAI “Right Back at Cha”

MCA

* 1/2 BOBBY BROWN “Remixes in the Key of B.”

MCA

* 1/2 MARY J. BLIGE “What’s the 411?

Remix Album”

MCA

** 1/2 Save your money.

If you already have the original versions of these three albums, skip these remix packages. Even with two new tracks per collection they’re not worth it.

Albums featuring cosmetic remixes are usually a waste anyway. They’re almost never an improvement on the original. Unless there are radical changes, like using parts of the melody as a jumping-off point for a stretched-out dance mix, what’s the point?

The audience for remix collections is hard-core fans who know the originals so well that a new piano line here and a toned-down horn part there is significant. But even fanatics won’t find much in this trio of remixes to get excited about. All the new material sounds like outtakes from the original albums.

Shai’s remix package is decidedly inferior to the music on the vocal group’s debut album. And tampering with the tracks of Mary J. Blige’s “What’s the 411” didn’t make that excellent album any better.

Remixing Brown’s weak “Bobby” album is like slapping a new coat of paint on a rickety shack. Beefing up the bass on the remixes of those lame tracks just means that you now have loud lame tracks.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).

* Times Link 808-8463 With this issue, Sunday Calendar introduces a new phone service for readers. To hear excerpts from any of the albums reviewed, call TimesLink and press * and the artist’s corresponding four-digit code. Domino *5710 Alice in Chains *5711 ZZ Top *5712 Shai *5713 Bobby Brown *5714 Mary J. Blige *5715 Das EFX *5716 Jody Watley *5717 TimesLink is available in the (213), (310), (714), (818) and (909) area codes.