British pop paper Melody Maker has reported...

British pop paper Melody Maker has reported that U2 will release a collection of remixes before Christmas. Sources at Island Records and others close to the band say that plans are not firm and that the album could be a Britain-only release. . . .

Chris Isaak has contributed two new recordings to the soundtrack of the Clint Eastwood-Kevin Costner movie “A Perfect World.” Isaak redid Johnnie Ray’s hit “The Little White Cloud That Cried” and the country song “Dark Moon,” to complement a collection of mostly country classics by the likes of Bob Wills, Johnny Cash and Don Gibson. . . .

Dancehall reggae-rapper Snow is in Kingston, Jamaica, working on his second album, due sometime early next year. He’d rather be working on it in the U.S., but can’t because he’s been denied a visa due to a record for assault. . . .

Bay Area rapper Paris, who was dropped by Time Warner-owned Tommy Boy Records after recording a song titled “Bush Killer” last year, has signed a distribution deal for his Scarface Records company with L.A.-based Priority--the same firm that picked up Ice-T after he left Warner Bros. Records. . . .

Rapper Slick Rick, whose career has been on hold while he’s been in jail since 1991 for shooting a relative has gotten into a work-furlough program that allows him to work in a recording studio during the day and go back to prison at night. An album is scheduled for April. . . .

Tommy Boy Records is assembling a collection of pot-oriented reggae songs. Titled “Big Blunts,” the album is tentatively due before Christmas. . . . TLC’s second album won’t be out by Christmas, in part because the trio has been tied up doing two songs--”Sleigh Ride” and “All I Want for Christmas”--for a seasonal anthology being done by LaFace Records. The TLC album is now due in February.*