In Brief

* * Dionne Warwick, “Friends Can Be Lovers,” Arista. The heralded reunion of Warwick with Burt Bacharach & Hal David results in a one-phrase song, “Sunny Weather Lover,” that is too good to have been left so incomplete. Warwick has regained some of the old magic, especially in a duet with Whitney Houston on “Love Will Find a Way” and a lovely reading of Sting’s “Fragile.” But too much of the collection is dominated by repetitious dance rhythms.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).