In Brief

* Paula Abdul, “Head Over Heels,” Virgin. The secret to Paula Abdul’s past success was a combination of solid pop-dance material and high-quality production that nicely camouflaged her weak, colorless voice. But her first album in four years--blending pop with hip-hop, R&B;, house, funk and rock--features neither exceptional songs nor classy production. The result: a terrible album.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (e x cellent).