Extending the Love Boat concept – the more special guests aboard, the better–to recording, Rick James has taken some illustrious companions along on his latest outing, Cold Blooded. And handed some pretty dippy songs to sing, they nearly sink the ship. "Didn't she know the price she had to pay was high to be a hoe?" James asks in "P.I.M.P. the S.I.M.P." before he ushers in a rapping Grandmaster Flash to scold pimps everywhere. This story of a young hooker found dead in a hotel room–dedicated to a girl James knew–ought to have inspired some angry feelings, not the cheerleader chant of "Mary's got a p-i-m-p." Smokey Robinson shares the lead vocal on "Ebony Eyes," a pop ballad in the Lionel Richie mold, and Billy Dee Williams drops by to give a husky reading to some fractured poetry in "Tell Me (What You Want)," another slow song. But there's no moment here like that when, in the heat of James' huge 1981 hit "Super Freak," he suddenly calls, "Temptations, sing!" and that vocal group enters to trump up the chorus. The celebrities on Cold Blooded barge in like Bob Hope on a talk show, appearing not so much as performers but as stars passing through town.

Lucky for James that when he throws the guests overboard, it's smoother sailing into serious funk. "Cold Blooded," which locks into a jerky, dance-worthy groove for nearly six minutes, has already shot to Number One on the R&B charts, even though it has an unfinished quality. The album's best cut is "U Bring the Freak Out," a sneaky synthesizer workout that would have been at home on James' finest LP, the hit-laden Street Songs. It's the ticklish keyboards and the big thumping bass that are the life of this party – not the big-name guests. (RS 406)

DEBBY MILLER