By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Online Entertainment staff

Wyclef Jean makes music for barbecues. And his latest album is just the kind you could pop on without offending any of the guests.

In the competitive image-conscious world of hip hop and R&B, the sometime Fugee is less bad boy and more affable uncle.

And he will not do himself any favours with guest vocalists like Tom Jones. There are plenty of songs that just need dusting off and a bit of modern polish and sampling to resurrect them. What's New Pussycat? is not one of them.

Jean does not take himself too seriously

Jean also seems to be unaware that Oh What A Night has already been covered to death and is a staple at agonising 1970s nights called Carwash or Love Train. You cannot listen to it without seeing "hilarious" brightly-coloured afro wigs flash in front of your eyes.

Rounding up the trio of not-so-credible covers is a rendition of Knockin' On Heaven's Door. Guns and Roses were able to summon up a pretty excruciating cover of the Bob Dylan song, but Wyclef Jean's version is a headlong plunge into the maudlin.

And he follows it with War No More, which bearing in mind The Fugees covered No Woman No Cry, skirts rather too close for comfort to the Bob Marley classic, despite its lyrics starting with a bizarre complaint about being hassled by airport security.

Jean does not take himself too seriously. We know this from the advert where he inadvertently signs himself away to be the love slave of a gap-toothed trailer trash occupant.

The Score by the Fugees was a big success

He is very much the anti-gangsta rapper and the message is hammered home in every song.

Peace God starts with the admonishment of a gun-toting child, while PJs is a ballad about life in America's notoriously squalid "projects" housing developments.

Wyclef makes a heartfelt complaint about "black Tony Montanas", gangster wannabes in the mould of the Scarface star.

You Say Keep It Gangsta and its intro track 1-800-Henchman continue the theme of people who are all mouth and no trousers.

Masquerade is one to hum along to and Party Like I Party has a reasonably interesting sample.

One of the better songs is Thug Like Me, a perky warning to mistreaters of girlfriends who want to be "hardcore like a rapper" that Jean could soon be round to replace them.

But for the most part this album plods and meanders, lacking the spark of earlier efforts and devoid of the mixture of laidback attitude shot through with darkness that made The Fugees' The Score worth a listen.

Masquerade - Message from the Streets is out on Columbia from Monday 8 July.