Party Pick-Me-Ups

* * 1/2 TONY TERRY. “Forever Yours.” Epic. * * 1/2 KEITH SWEAT. “Make It Last Forever.” Vintertainment/Elektra. Wondering what to play at your next soiree to ensure maximum dance-floor activity? If the singles by funk newcomers Tony Terry and Keith Sweat--”She’s Fly” and “I Want Her,” respectively--don’t do the trick, that might be your signal to pack up the chips and dip and call it a night.

Terry’s “She’s Fly” is the highlight of his debut album. It’s a tart street-corner salute to a nose-in-the-air cutie and it swings so sharply between praise and put-down that a woman could get whiplash trying to follow it.

The cut is so wild that the rest of Terry’s album seems grounded by comparison, although the darkly provocative “What Would It Take” and the double-jointed “Young Love” offer their own distinctive pleasures. A former gospel artist who once sang back-up for Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Terry sounds a little hemmed-in and uneasy at his pop/funk conversion, but “She’s Fly” is evidence of his potential as a major contributor to the field.

Like Terry, Keith Sweat poured all his heart, soul and imagination into one cut on his debut album. On “I Want Her,” Sweat really works one up. It’s a funk workout so monstrous that it’s easily one of last year’s stellar dance cuts. Sweat wrote everything here except an update of the Dramatics’ “In the Rain”--a bad move, since only someone who hasn’t heard the original version could appreciate this low-key remake.

“I Want Her” is so compelling that it keeps this album from being a disappointment. It makes you want to believe that Sweat is too talented not to deliver a great album--not just one killer track--in the future.

Check List * * * * Great Balls of Fire * * * Good Vibrations * * Maybe Baby * Running on Empty