Mick Jagger's fourth solo album, "Goddess in the Doorway," was recently bestowed with Rolling Stone's five-star rating. But once again, the new Rolling Stone, which feels the need to tirelessly place disposable pop icons on their covers, has wandered well off the reservation.

The need to crown Jagger's new solo album with "classic status" is hardly surprising. Bob Dylan's "Time Out of Mind" and "Love and Theft" as well as Santana's "Supernatural" experienced the same treatment. Only Dylan's work truly deserved the acclaim.

In times of relative musical mediocrity, the music industry and its paid-off publications, television specials and various award shows rush to hype the new works as yesterday's heroes. Aimed at grabbing the attention of the young searching through rock's past and the middle-aged looking to relive it, the practice is merely sound business strategy. More often than not it is complete nonsense.

Above all, the most surprising aspect of "Goddess in the Doorway" lies in the way it shamelessly copies "Supernatural's" formula of seemingly endless guest stars, with similarly bland results. "Visions of Paradise" brings Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas and offers little more than Jagger over-singing a typically dull Matchbox Twenty melody. Lenny Kravitz lends his talent to "God Gave Me Everything," the current single. Aside from the refrain, the song drowns along with a boredom typical of Kravitz's latest works. Wyclef John attempts to add reggae splash to "Hide Away" but falls well short of the Stones' Caribbean-influenced work of the mid-seventies. Joe Perry adds guitars to "Everybody Getting High" and similar to most of Aerosmith's work since "Pump," one would hardly know it.

Given the album's relative weakness, there are a few moments of clarity. Bono and Pete Townsend contribute to "Joy," by far the album's best track, and the song is the one moment where the relentless outside collaboration works.

"Don't Call Me Up," "Dancing in the Starlight," "Too Far Gone" and "Brand New Set of Rules" are solid pieces of introspective balladry and Jagger's lyrics add real feeling. Nonetheless, the relevant moments are just too far and in between.

Almost 20 years after Jagger first went solo, one key feature defines his sabbaticals from the Rolling Stones: without the musical muscle of Keith Richards and Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger cannot truly shine.

The solo Mick Jagger often tries to overcompensate for the touch, soul and swagger lost in their absence and, in process, consistently achieves little more than glossy mediocrity.

Sadly, "Goddess in the Doorway" falls into the same pattern and in the end, simply fails to translate into goodness in the CD player.

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