A Double Dose of Garth Brooks Is a Real Deee-Lite

Keeping up with what’s fresh in pop music on a budget of $25 per month ($40 for CD fans).

November

Garth Brooks’ “Garth Brooks” (Capitol)--Brooks, the hottest newcomer in country music, is a good but not great singer--and he’s not able to always come up with dazzling material. But see him live--where he sells his best songs with a genuineness that is hard to resist--and you’ll become a fan.

Garth Brooks’ “No Fences” (Capitol)--Brooks has enough good material for one excellent album, but it’s spread over two collections. After seeing him on stage, where he expresses country’s blue-collar dreams and frustrations as well as anyone in a decade, you’ll probably be willing to buy both albums so you can listen to the best songs.

Deee-Lite’s “World Clique” (Elektra)--It’s normally wise to avoid any group that begins its album with a self-introduction, but this New York-based trio overcomes the self-consciousness and delivers some of the year’s most witty and inviting dance-pop, including “Groove Is in the Heart.” The B-52’s of the ‘90s?

December

Black Box’s “Dreamland” (RCA)--The framework of this dance music from Italy (dubbed “spaghetti house” by Q magazine), is conventional, but the beats are infectious and the key vocals bring a sensual edge to the music that is reminiscent of Gloria Gaynor’s best disco-related work.

Gear Daddies’ “Billy’s Live Bait” (Polydor)--Martin Zellar’s songs touch on the struggle between childhood ideals and adult responsibilities with an insight and conviction reminiscent of Paul Westerberg and Bob Forrest, and it is delivered with a lonesome rock intensity that keeps drawing you back. One of the year’s 10 best albums. See Page 71.

Lush’s “Gala” (4AD/Reprise)--Don’t let the recent New Musical Express cover story comparing this British group to ABBA fool you into thinking you’ll find another “Fernando” or “Dancing Queen” here. But “Gala”--with its harsher textures and tales of stained innocence--offers deliciously appealing art-pop.