Fridae

Mention Deborah Cox's new album to any fag on the street and you'll get a squeal of delight with a frantic hop, skip, jump, and a full sprint for the nearest record store even before you can end your sentence.

After all, it's been almost five years since the dance floor super-diva released an album. Think about it�no gay guy waits five years for anything. A CD bought last week is definitely "old" this week. It's even sooner when it comes to men! But Deborah's one of the few exceptions, of course.

Describing The Morning After, her third album to date (and first with Clive Davis' J Records), she says: "I didn't feel any pressure to top what I had done before. As a result, I wrote more songs for this record than I've written before so this is my most personal album to date." It boasts a list of mega-producers such as Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jermaine Dupri, and Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins.

The Morning After contains all the essential ingredients that made her 1995 self-titled debut and 1998's One Wish each a delightful triple-scoop of Haagen-Dazs with all the calories removed: sensuous beats, classic heart wrenching ballads, and a voice that could upstage Whitney Houston any day if she really had the heart to (after all, she did sing back-up for Celine Dion once upon a time.)

Following the trail of the recent duet (Same Script, Different Cast) she did with the aforementioned, which turned into a massive dance hit at gay bars around the world, the album features the Hex/Mac mix of Mr Lonely and the Chanel Mix of the international hit Absolutely Not, a cut she originally recorded for the 2001 soundtrack of Dr Dolittle 2. I'm sure you know how it goes; it's the only song I know that asks: "Will I go to work in a miniskirt?"

"Those dance remixes definitely broadened my fan base and I started developing a major following in the gay community," she says. Who wouldn't remember the classic Hex Hector mix of Nobody's Supposed To Be Here or Things Just Ain't The Same? Both almost always overheated the men and drove them to peel their wet shirts off on the dance floor.

However, let's get one thing straight: The Morning After is not a dance record... at least not yet. For the time being, it's Deborah at her finest, minus the heart pounding beats per minute.

"Take the title track, The Morning After; it's about someone who ends up sleeping with her best (male) friend. Yes, I did that...and we ended up together," she confesses on the track that sounds like a more positive version of Shirley Murdock's As We Lay. Another cut, Starting With You, has her singing "Don't say a word / Listen to Deborah for once", advising her "sisters" to respect themselves, get their act together, and leave their abusive men.

The highlight of the album, a track co-written with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis titled Hurt So Much, is what Deborah calls a classic soul record. "It's a situation that so many people find themselves in where they stay with someone rather than face the fear of being alone� staying with someone even though they've messed up." Honey, don't we all do that? And then we end up asking ourselves why we always get the good-for-nothing scrubs of the world. The lyrics say it all: "I'd rather take a chance with you / I'd rather be in love than be alone".

Another hot ballad is Play Your Part, written and produced by Shep Crawford (who was responsible for Nobody's Supposed To Be Here). The track, with its references to acting and plays, is quite plainly Take 2 of Same Script, Different Cast.

Incidentally, she currently stars in the play Love on Layaway, a musical and romantic comedy about a woman who is in relationship with a man who doesn't want to commit. On a Web posting, Deborah declares: "I am so excited about this play cause it will allow me to expand in the area of theater and sharpen my acting skills!"

I'm heading out to the mall to get the right shoes for the remixes. Who's with me?