Forever

The set oozes with timely funk beats and the kind of well-crafted songs that No. 1 hits are made of.

A frothy soufflé of an album, heavy on the groovy dance beats and go-girl goodwill, light on profundity.

Every genre cliché, from homogenized harmonies to delicately plucked stringed instruments to male rapper interjections, is securely in place. The music is so tasteful, restrained, and assembly line proficient that it makes early singles like ''Say You'll Be There'' sound like the rawest punk rock.

"Forever" is about as glossy as it gets. It's also understandably predictable.

There's no gentle way of saying this, so let's cut to the chase. This record is, quite simply, useless.

Yes, this is their "mature" album, the one where the once effervescent combo that could be counted on for enough hooky innuendoes to excite pre-teen girls and dirty young men alike aspire toward some sort of longer-lasting pop relevance. Which translates here into ballads and a huge dose of R&B-lite. It all sounds very professional, though only a hardcore fan can deny that the bloom is definitely off the rose.

Sure, they make all the right moves, hiring superstar producer Rodney Jerkins to helm most of the tracks and attempting to seem mature, but this all results in a record that is curiously self-conscious and flat. Neither the production, the songs, or the performances have much life to them, with the exception of the closer "Goodbye," which significantly was released as a Christmas single in 1999, long before the rest of the record was finished.