JOY ENRIQUEZ

Joy Enriquez
(Arista)

There’s another Latina in pop,ladies and gentlemen, presenting Joy Enriquez.

An 11-time winner from the Star Search amateur talent competitions, Joy originally auditioned for Babyface¹s girl group project. As luck would have it, however, Joy got herself a solo career, and the rest is history, well, almost.

By itself this self-titled album is unlikely to put Joy Enriquez on the map. Her material does not break any ground at all in the pop/R&B territory, as the formulaic, midtempo jam-and-ballad combination that she uses can be found in every other album of the genre. In over half of the tracks here, Joy ends up sounding like someone else.

The marginally successful single ³Tell Me How You Feel² makes Joy sound Like Brandy. On the ballad front, if there¹s someone whose voice she recalls, it has to be Mariah Carey¹s. Sounds unbelievable? Check out "Losin" this Love’ and "With this Love" you’ll be surprised.

The album begins to show signs of life and individuality on the seductive "I Can’t Believe" and on the Latin-tinged "Shake Up the Party," but after those two songs, the album just falls back into blandness. Joy tries to save the CD with ³How Can I Not Love You² from the movie Anna and the King, but by then it¹s far too late to save the listener from boredom. This album is certainly not Joy¹s ticket to stardom. We’ll just have to wait a while longer.