Spanish album. Salsa biopic. Tour with hubby. Jennifer Lopez has churned out projects at warp speed this year, proving she can still outwork the best of them. But after her album Como Ama una Mujer and movie "El Cantante" both disappointed, we weren?t exactly surprised to hear that the megastar would suddenly be releasing an English album, "Brave." That?s because, well, we made her do it.

The evidence: We haven?t bought enough copies of her Spanish CD to make it go gold-and we clearly loved Marc?s "El Cantante" soundtrack (number 1 on the Latin charts for weeks) more than the film. The truth is, we decided long ago what we want from J. Lo, and the first singles off Brave prove it. The disco-pop beat propelling "Hold It, Don?t Drop It" cries out for neo-Fly Girl choreography, while "Do It Well" delivers nonstop energy. It?s a return-to-form CD, full of signature jams and "Jenny from the Block" swagger.

This doesn?t mean Jennifer shouldn?t branch out. She should try another Spanish album-just hire producers who can deliver tunes that are fresher. In any case, we agree with something she said recently: "I?m a believer in ?no fear? and going for what you want." But if Brave is how she?s closing 2007, it?s clear that-por ahora, at least-our biggest star is going for what we want.

Music Roundup-New Releases from Victor Manuelle and Toby Love, Bad News for Menudo and Jennifer Lopez

Victor Manuelle wants to be on your holiday playlist! This week, the boricua salsa star releases Victor Manuelle: Una Navidad a Mi Estilo, featuring classic Christmas tunes and originals like the hilariously-titled "Lechón, Lechón Lechón," which should put us in the right frame of mind to stuff our caras all winter long. It's Victor's first album since parting ways with his longtime label Sony BMG, and his new label, reggaeton imprint Machete, continues to broaden its genre horizons by teaming up with him to distribute the release.

In other album release news, Toby Love drops a beefed-up version of his breakout debut called Toby Love Reloaded (Sony BMG) with six remixed tracks and one brand-new single called "La Mujer Perfecta," featuring a cameo by Héctor El Father. We're riding with Toby on this one, but only if he promises to release a new, original album by the end of next year. All these reloaded reggaeton and bachata CD's are starting to wear us out!

Menudo is making moves, but not necessarily good ones...a couple of weeks ago, MTV finally embarked on its televised quest to bring the ultimate boy band back to life with the premiere of "Making Menudo" in a choice time slot-namely, Thursday nights after the mega-popular celebreality show, "Run's House." Turns out that didn't go so well. According to USA Today, the show debuted with just 533,000 viewers, which was especially disappointing on the heels of Run's 1.6 million viewers. The network balked and has since moved the Menudo boys over to Sunday mornings, where practically no one will see them, but you can count on us to check out the show over a little weekend desayuno.

What's in the Pipeline this week? For starters, Juan Luis Guerra topped off his masterful dominance of the 2007 Latin Grammy's with an exciting announcement-the conscious merenguero will embark on a tour next March! We can't wait to see him revisit his biggest hits and the new track from La Llave De Mi Corazon in a live setting...Mexican teen idol Yuridia will release Entre Mariposas on December 4, and the first single, "Ahora Entendi," is already making waves on the charts...and we're hearing March 11 for the release of Fat Joe's anticipated next album, The Elephant in the Room. Bronx, stand up!

Speaking of the Bronx, in this week's installment of "Jennifer Lopez's Chart Descent," we learn that the pop diva dropped all the way down to #80 last Wednesday, which is probably just one of the many reasons why she's going into post-baby announcement hibernation. Baby Bash, meanwhile, landed at an impressive #30 with the debut of his latest, Cyclone, proving one thing-if you've got a T-Pain hook on your single these days, anything is possible!

Source: Latina.com