**1/2 Missing Persons

REMIXED HITS

(Cleopatra)

Terry Bozzio and Dale Bozzio, the core of Missing Persons, might not have changed the direction of pop music with their Euro-like comedic disco, but 15 years after their prime this remixed collection of their best-known songs feels a whole lot like useful club fun. Edgy and cute at the same time, and remixed by 13 different acid-house and trance DJs, Missing Persons' songs sound embarrassingly catchy and at the same time are hard to pin down. Delight and surprise find their way in among the techno clichés and trancy commonplaces, but the magic here isn't all in the remix. The music itself, in marvelous ear candies like "Walking In LA" (three versions), "I Like Boys," "Destination Unknown" (two remixes), and "Words" (also in two takes), changes shape just when you think you have it figured out, and Dale's cute and smily vocals distract your attention from these transformations. What else would you expect a disco dolly to do? How otherwise to tickle your erogenous zones without tempting your moral conscience? "Mental Hopscotch," especially, is recommended to the tongues and lips of all dance nations.

-- Michael Freedberg