*** Various Artists

WORK IT! DANCE = LIFE

(Priority)

This 12-track dance-club compilation lifts one's spirits, thanks to DJ Todd Terry's willingness, as mixer, to open with the silky gospel sound associated with Frankie Knuckles. From Janet Jackson's "Because of Love" and Diana Ross's "I Will Survive" to Donna Summer's "Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)," Terry's beats step lightly, amid piano melodies underpinning mostly female voices soaring, ever so softly, up to the high octaves. Then the real Terry takes over. Swinging from "Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)" into Annie Lennox's "Little Bird," he fattens the beat and darkens it (as if to say "big mama, that Lennox"). Louder and louder, the beat splinters as Reba McEntire's campy "You Keep Me Hangin' On" gives way to the raw pretense of Traci Lords's "Fallen Angel" and Barry Manilow's "Could It Be Magic."

-- Michael Freedberg