Highs, Lows of Christmas Carols on CD

For aficionados of Christmas pop, 1992 is a mixed year at best for CD stocking stuffers. Nonetheless, Garth Brooks’ platinum “Beyond the Season” and the just-released “A Very Special Christmas 2” sampler, among a sleighful of other Bing wanna-bes, are likely to keep cash registers ringing these next two months.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).

Even more than the 1987 original, the uneven charity album “A Very Special Christmas 2” (**1/2) is chock-full of expendable star turns. You haven’t experienced annoying until you’ve heard Wilson Phillips turn “Silent Night” into one of their trademark harmonic convergences--unless, that is, you’ve first heard Debbie Gibson capsize “Sleigh Ride” with cuteness. Michael Bolton almost makes it all the way through a relatively subdued “White Christmas” without going for the Big Notes, but can’t help himself in the snow-melting final bars.

Neither one of a couple of promising duets--one between Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love, the other pairing Cyndi Lauper with a 1947 tape of Frank Sinatra--offers double the fun. But Bonnie Raitt and bluesy Charles Brown don’t disappoint, making the perfect match on the latter’s classic “Merry Christmas Baby,” the album’s standout track.

The chanciest choice comes from Sinead O’Connor: Bob Dylan’s non-Christmas but bill-fitting hymn “I Believe in You,” which--with lines like, “They look at me and frown / They’d like to drive me from this town”--has certainly proved prophetic. O’Connor was scheduled to sing it at the Dylan tribute; imagine how triumphantly she would’ve come off had she done this amid the jeers instead of her brat act.

Among country releases, Garth Brooks’ “Beyond the Season” (***) and Travis Tritt’s “Loving Time of the Year” (** 1/2) both have the good taste to feature Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy”; Tritt earns extra points for including a second Owens tune, too. Up-and-comer Tritt’s frisky collection rocks out more, but superstar Brooks maintains the slight edge with a gift for balladry befitting the religious material dominating his album.

Amy Grant’s “Home for Christmas” (**) comes as a considerable letdown, following the fun of her first, far more charming Christmas album a decade ago. With this subdued set, it’s as if she’s determinedly trying not to be “cute” anymore, but the self-conscious classiness--complete with lifeless orchestra--casts her as middle-aged before her time.

Grant’s at least inherently suited for this stuff. But Neil Diamond’s “The Christmas Album” (*) makes his interpretive limitations excruciatingly evident. Diamond brings the same slightly melodramatic approach to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”; you half-expect him to interject “they come to America!” in both instances.

For a toxic antidote to Diamond’s sugar, check out the equally awful Mojo Nixon’s “Horny Holidays” (*1/2), which rockingly blasphemes every tradition in sight. By the time Nixon gets around to “We three kings of Orient are / Drinking whiskey in a nude bar,” even the satirically inclined may find their good humor exhausted.

Ready for reverence again? The remarkably ambitious “Handel’s Messiah--A Soulful Celebration” (***) recasts the 18th-Century oratorio as an R&B; suite. It’ll be blasphemy to some classical hardliners, but the results--incorporating pop, jazz, rap and hip-hop--are more fun than you’d expect. Take 6 and Stevie Wonder share vocals on the catchily titled “O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion”; other key performers include Al Jarreau, Tevin Campbell, the Yellowjackets and a host of black gospel favorites.

Speaking of black gospel, the Sounds of Blackness’ “The Night Before Christmas--A Musical Fantasy” (***) may be the first album in that genre to have a full choir joyfully singing the praises of . . . Kris Kringle. Two terrific Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis-produced secular Christmas tracks lead off the album, followed by a quick set of hymns before the lengthy, playful title suite gets underway. This spunky set and “Messiah” have it hands and hosannas down over other current Christmas releases for pure freshness.