** CoCo Lee

JUST NO OTHER WAY

(550/Epic)

No longer a parochial battlefield, contemporary pop is a playground of misplaced signifiers. Take CoCo Lee: Hong Kong-born and Bay Area-raised; first language Cantonese, though she's long since forgotten it; returned to Asia following high school and became a huge pop star, recording a dozen Mandarin-language records in five years. Now Sony has chosen her to break Asians into the American pop mainstream by pitching her as a pop/R&B diva with b-girl tendencies.

Got it? Well, neither do the Sony honchos, who seem to think that naive sexuality will suffice to sell CoCo to the masses. Orientalism does seem to be making a comeback, and what better combination than to add silly Ebonic affectations into the mix! If CoCo had any sort of commanding voice, her crossover might well be legitimate, but instead she comes off as the Asian Jennifer Lopez, getting by on T&A instead of good A&R. At best, she suggests a mellower Paula Abdul, her sound a mix of floating Asian-pop balladry and generic club beats with a R&B twist. "All Tied Up in You" is her best moment, an understated love song with clever imagery. Although CoCo is being presented as the cultural polyglot, beneath the surface she's a victim of the same old songs.

-- Ed Hazell