Do Me Again (1990)

At the beginning of this album, the background singers coo, ''Freddie, are you ready?'' and he barely answers them with a faint ''Yes.'' For the next 50 minutes or so, he similarly fails to engage his audience, an audience that has carried all three of his previous albums to the top of the R&B charts during a five-year solo career. Although he may very well repeat this feat with Do Me Again, he doesn't quite deliver the goods this time. In his defense, he is hampered by a somewhat cold musical production: Though much of today's popular music is generated by synthesizers and drum machines, this record sounds a little too mechanical. But Freddie Jackson doesn't help liven things up either. On songs like the current single, ''Love Me Down,'' he sings directly to a lover, but his somewhat studied approach to passion keeps her at arm's length. C+

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