There’s something misleading about the title of the latest Aretha Franklin CD. While one instantly imagines this to be a celebration of the soul legend, guests Frank Sinatra, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and George Michael threaten to overshadow her. With some songs putting Franklin squarely in the secondary vocal role, this really seems to be the case.

As for the record itself, Jewels in the Crown covers a range of R&B standards that vary from classic interpretations of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “What Now My Love” and “Chain of Fools,” to horrific mutations such as “Don’t Waste Your Time” and “Never Gonna Break My Faith.”

The problem here isn’t Franklin. As expected, her voice and delivery are as powerful as ever, proving that she deserves her royal moniker. It’s when she sidesteps her role as a founder of the archetypical sound of R&B and works with younger artists, affecting their permutations of the genre in an effort to appeal to a broader crowd, that things degenerate. Drowned in synthesizers and looped beats, these songs are relegated to pure schlock, seemingly disrespectful to Franklin.

However, when she wraps her golden pipes around more traditionally soulful material, the end results are blistering pieces of nostalgia, groove and unadulterated entertainment. To mix metaphors, if this old dog stays far away from the new tricks, the world will continue to beat a path to her door.