Holiday Gift-Giving--The Hints of ’92

How does Madonna’s musical product compare with her literary and film endeavors?. . .Which of those Seattle bands offers the best grunge for the buck? . . . Is Garth’s latest album as good as his show?. . .Which rappers are for kids and which are for adults only?. . .Are there some worthy soundtrack albums out there?

Those are the kinds of questions facing holiday shoppers. Calendar’s annual Top 40 Shopping Guide is designed to ease the burden by summarizing The Times’ reviews of 40 of the nation’s most popular and/or critically admired albums, listed alphabetically. The ratings are based on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent). The comments are from the original reviews, but the ratings sometimes reflect additional staff input.

* 1/2 Bon Jovi, “Keep the Faith,” Mercury. The Jersey group casts about aimlessly, never coming close to finding a distinctive sound or personality. Still a band of huge, oft-repeated hooks and songwriting that lacks inventiveness and depth.

* * * Elton John, “The One,” MCA. This may be the most insightful and alert-to-its-times album that John and lyricist Bernie Taupin have ever done. In these vignettes of people in turmoil, John is a soulful, sumptuously melodic voice of comfort and encouragement.

* * 1/2 Nine Inch Nails, “Broken,” Interscope. This fairly mundane six-song EP isn’t likely to put NIN up there with GNR. There’s no song nearly so irresistible as “Head Like a Hole,” but “Broken” should be good enough to hold you over until the real second album shows up.