** 1/2 MARC ANTHONY”Marc Anthony”ColumbiaThe much anticipated...

** 1/2 MARC ANTHONY

“Marc Anthony”

Columbia

The much anticipated English-language album (due Tuesday) from the biggest seller in the salsa field makes you think of a child who changes schools and finds a true, lifelong friend there.

In this case, Anthony’s best friend is the lucrative field of mainstream, corporate pop, a genre that fits him like a comfortable pair of shoes. So much so, indeed, that you wonder why he spent so many years releasing the superficial, glossy salsa records that made him famous.

This new direction has nothing to do with the English-language house music he sang at the start of his career, and even less to do with Latin music--a little timbales here and some congas there are hardly enough to qualify as salsa or Latin pop. A funky tune such as “I Need to Know” sounds more like something Prince could compose if he woke up in a Latin mood.

But it’s the little details that compensate for the overall weakness of the material, most of which was co-written by Anthony and producer Cory Rooney. A lot of thought went into the arrangements, from the serene keyboards of “You Sang to Me” and the seductive female vocals of “No One” to the crystal-clear Spanish guitar of “How Could I.” At the center of it all is Anthony’s voice, pleasant and potent, tickled to death by its owner’s new role as the thinking-woman’s Ricky Martin. After this perfectly engineered career move, this is one Latin singer who will probably never look back.

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