TLC Takes Care to Adopt Streamlined Approach

You want to talk performance anxiety? Imagine how TLC must feel. Four years after making the biggest-selling album by a female group in pop music history, the 10-million-selling “CrazySexyCool,” the trio is releasing (on Tuesday) the follow-up at a time when artists who were once considered bankable stars are struggling to break the million sales mark.

Wisely, TLC and primary producer Dallas Austin haven’t strayed too far from “CrazySexyCool’s” airtight grooves and supple R&B--they;’ve just streamlined and updated their overall approach, and made an album that should reposition TLC as dance-music divas of the moment.

“Fan Mail’s” achievements have little to do with vocal finesse. All three members are severely limited singers who get by with wispy, flat voices reminiscent of Janet Jackson’s. But it hardly matters. Austin and “Fan Mail’s” small army of producers are so adept at surrounding TLC’s vocal tracks with sinewy beats and startling arrangements that vocals become an afterthought.

Like his contemporary Timbaland, Austin brings underground flavor to mainstream hip-hop. “Fan Mail” is girded to jittery, caffeinated beats; “Silly Ho” punctuates each vocal phrase with a game-show buzzer; “No Scrubs” juxtaposes a plaintive acoustic guitar to a narrative about lecherous club-crawlers. Forget the album’s fair share of wimpy balladry. “Fan Mail’s” highlights are out of the ballpark.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.