In Brief

*** Various artists, “DGC Rarities Vol. 1,” DGC/Geffen. Is a previously unreleased Nirvana demo worth even the budget price of this collection? When that track is “Pay to Play,” a 1990 punk-fury explosion that evolved into “Stay Away,” the answer is yes. But wait, there’s more: Hole’s intriguing, U.K.-only single “Beautiful Son” and lesser but still worth-collecting efforts from Beck, Sonic Youth and Counting Crows make this 14-track anthology a good value.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).