Oct 10, 2008  |  By: JOEY DiGUGLIELMO  | COMMENTS     

It’s easy to hate Jason & deMarco — to the jaded among us (and many gays wear jadedness like honor rings) they’re nothing more than sickening-sweet pop pretty boys with no more musical heft than 98 Degrees or Josh Groban.

Those things are true to a large degree but, for me, the duo — partners personally and professionally — lands just on the right side of palatable because they’re such great singers. Yes, the material is often bland and unmemorable, but when they stumble on solid stuff, the results can be quite good.

Their new album “Safe,” which dropped last week, is an odd mixed bag of covers, new material, remixes and greatest hits. With only a handful of studio albums under their belt (depending how you count), it’s almost as if “Safe” was conceived to be the greatest hits package they’re not quite far enough along in their career to warrant. If there’s any unifying thread to the “Safe” material it’s that it accompanies a new documentary of the group called “We’re No Angels,” released on DVD Tuesday.

Though it’s all over the map stylistically, “Safe’s” eclecticism ends up working in its favor. Previous Jason & deMarco albums like “Spirit Pop” (2004) and “Til the End of Time” (2006) suffered from too much mediocre balladry. Just when it seems “Safe” is heading in that same direction, it pulls a stylistic left turn that gets things buzzing again.

The title track, which opens the album, is a mid-tempo mood piece that doesn’t distinguish itself but it’s followed by two killer covers — Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” re-imagined here as a sputtering, “Dock of the Bay”-type homage that works surprisingly well, and U2’s “One.” The latter, despite its pummeling percussion bed, doesn’t reach the ecstatic peak Mary J. Blige found with the hit when she performed it with U2, but it’s great to hear Jason & deMarco on proven, solid material (they should consider an all-covers album as their voices are their calling card far more than their songwriting).

The only other new material is first single “It’s Okay,” which, despite its cascading melismas and endearing melody, is just “Okay.” It works better as a dance remix, included here as a bonus track.

Most of the rest of the “Safe” material has been previously released but there are three near masterpieces, all previously released: strummy, guitar-driven sing-along “Just in Time” (originally released on “Til the End of Time”), power anthem “When Your Spirit Gets Too Weak” (pop hooks don’t get any tighter and leaner than on this cut from last year’s “Halo”) and, in stark contrast, a plaintive, unfettered arrangement of “Ave Maria” featuring Jason’s lead vocals over a solo electric guitar (it previously appeared on a Christmas album).

I also gave Jennifer Hudson’s eponymous debut a spin this week and found it surprisingly bland. With a major label behind her (Sony-owned Arista), an army of guest artists, songwriters and producers and, of course, Hudson’s impressive pipes, which wowed audiences on “American Idol” and the movie “Dreamgirls” (for which she won the Oscar), I expected more.

Some of the power ballads, most egregiously “Giving Myself,” just don’t work with clunky transitions and contrived climaxes. “Pocketbook,” with its tough hip-hop beats, is silly fun and catfight Fantasia duet “I’m His Only Woman,” despite great singing from the two soul belters, has a bland, ’70s lounge vibe.

The album picks up steam on its way out. Some may find the triple whammy balladry too much on “We Gon Fight,” “Invisible” and her trademark “Dreamgirls” number “And I Am Telling You …,” but that’s more an issue of sequencing than anything lacking in the songs themselves.

The record ends with a refreshing change of pace — the gentle, old-school gospel vibes that flow effortlessly from “Jesus Promised Me a Home Over There.”

Hudson’s a major talent, to be sure, but she needs time and space to forge a distinct musical identity. Fewer sonic cooks in the kitchen would help.