It's a well- known fact that most pop music really sucks. Because people tend to be rather stupid, well over 50% of the product being churned out by the music industry (which is, after all, staffed and overseen by people) is awful. Soulless assembly- line American pop is bad enough, but there's nothing sadder than another culture incorporating the slickness and professionalism of the big- business American entertainment model into their own music traditions. The result, tragically, is far worse than Mariah Carey or Richard Marx could ever be (if not quite as disagreeable as David Hasselhoff). And that is very bad indeed.

Which brings us to the pleasant surprise that is Natacha Atlas' new album Gedida. Atlas, who grew up in a predominantly Moroccan suburb of Brussels, Belgium, is the lead singer and belly dancer (for real!) of the World Music collective Trans-Global Underground. She sings primarily in Arabic, and uses that tongue's peculiar (to these corn-fed Midwestern ears) cadences and vocal glissandi in the context of Eastern- tinged dance pop. This kind of synthesis could be awful if it were to lean too heavily on tired club music conventions while throwing in the occasional odd "ethnic" instrument. But Atlas creates something fresh, a truly funky album with distinctive melodic touches rarely heard in this context.

The music ranges from the eclectic amalgamation of "Ezzay," which has a pulse derived from near- East percussion and a beautiful tear- jerker of a string refrain, to the more standard grooves of "Aqaba" and "Bilaadi," which are merely dancable mainstream pop tunes sung in Arabic. Whatever the mood or texture explored, Atlas has a sure hand with both the dramatic element (most spurred on by her unusual voice) and the hook. True, many of these tunes are a bit too lengthy, and the decision to publish the lyrics in the CD booklet is questionable (they're mostly platitudes of the "one love" variety), but Gedida as a whole stands out as strong work with broad appeal that satisfies both the ear and the booty.

-Mark Richard-San