DIDDY'S LAST TRAIN TO PARIS! IS THIS SH!T EVER COMING OUT?

Other than taking the trouble to change his name every so often, what, exactly, does Diddy do?

Sing? No.

Dance? Not very well.

Rap? Rarely and, when he does, clumsily. Yet, somehow, he's an "artist" who puts out albums under his own name.

At least that's how things worked with Sean Combs' first four CDs. For his newbie, "Last Train to Paris," Diddy split the disk's credit down the middle, sharing billing with something called Dirty Money. Basically, that involves singers Kalenna Harper and Dawn Richard (the latter from the girl group Diddy earlier assembled, Danity Kane). The pair sing loudly, often and well -- a good thing. Their input gives the CD a cohesion otherwise disrupted by Diddy's usual conga line of guest stars, which includes everyone from Swizz Beats to Usher.

Just as crucially, Diddy changed his genre of music this time. He went from hip-hop/pop/R&B to Euro dance music, which, of course, has plenty of pop and R&B in it. The CD bounces with a decided continental inflection, drawing inspiration from the randy all-night clubs of Ibiza and Berlin.

It's a shrewd (if not downright exploitative) move. Ever since the influence of French producer David Guetta on American pop through his work with the Black Eyed Peas, U.S. radio has downplayed hip-hop to favor dance music.

A figure like Diddy leaping on that bandwagon may say sad things about hip-hop as a commercial form, but as it turns out, the milieu proves a much better fit for his, er, talents, than any CD he has released so far.

Dance albums often feature a character like Diddy, a behind-the-scenes tastemaker who's directing the show rather than actually performing. That lets Diddy play unselfconscious impresario here, which works out even better considering he did a fairly good job of corralling and directing the real artists in residence.

A cut like "Strobe Light" has just as much jittery excitement as the title suggests, while "A− on the Dance Floor" will put yours right there. The Euro edge gives the music a leg up on the more conservative (read: American) dance music favored by the most mainstream club act of now -- those ever mushy Peas.

Just one number finds Diddy breaking the flow to reveal himself, the finale "Coming Home," where he confesses to everything from bad parenting to fear of commitment. It's an interesting moment but an unnecessary one. Diddy does better by letting others bring the fun, leaving him to play his favored role: as this generation's answer to Ed Sullivan.


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