Seasonal Sounds Ranging From Rebellious to the Warm and Cozy

Hands down the standout holiday release this year is the scathingly funny “Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics” from the “South Park” crew. Every bit as musically astute as it is savagely humorous, it provides the ideal antidote to the umpteenth rendition of “Silver Bells.”

It’s definitely not for everyone, though, and the more traditional-minded can browse through offerings from Garth Brooks, Natalie Cole and Rosie O’Donnell.

** 1/2 GARTH BROOKS, “Garth Brooks & the Magic of Christmas.” Capitol Nashville. Brooks never does anything halfway, and here he gives his sentimental side free rein. His approach to the holiday classics doesn’t differ a lot from Perry Como’s, but a gently jazzy “Winter Wonderland” and a country gospel treatment for “Go Tell It On the Mountain” lend some needed punch.

*** NATALIE COLE, “The Magic of Christmas,” Elektra. Cole’s technology-assisted duet with her father, Nat King Cole, on his best-known holiday number, “The Christmas Song,” crowns her traditional jazz-tinged outing with the London Symphony Orchestra.

** 1/2 AMY GRANT, “A Christmas to Remember,” A&M.; The sincerity of Christian pop’s leading lady is never in question in her collection of mostly recent songs of the season. But the sweetness that infuses most of the material will leave a sticky taste in the mouths of all but the most ardently sentimental.

** KENNY G, “Faith,” Arista. The G-man’s last holiday outing, 1994’s “Miracles,” sold some 8 million copies and topped the Billboard pop album chart, so expect this one to similarly rocket skyward with another batch of lovingly, if simplistically, rendered carols from his relentlessly soothing sax. His brief displays of jazz chops in “Sleigh Ride” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” bring some welcome spice.

** 1/2 JEWEL, “Joy: A Holiday Collection,” Atlantic. The folk-pop star’s coquettish, feather-light voice is alternately effective and affected on this mostly obvious selection of carols. The arrangements by Arif and Joe Mardin and others are inventive, and the holiday classics are interspersed with her own reverential song “Face of Love” and a nicely retooled-for-Christmas version of “Hands.”

** 1/2 REBA McENTIRE, “Secret of Giving--A Christmas Collection,” MCA Nashville. This country-pop queen acknowledges that the holidays can be a time of torn emotions as well as joy and unity, in the broken-family ballad “Santa Claus Is Coming Back to Town” and the title track. Other tunes follow the usual pattern of wishing goodwill to all and offering thanks for life’s blessings.

** ROSIE O’DONNELL, “A Rosie Christmas,” Columbia. It’s a celebrity-fest as Rosie shares the mike with her famous pals to benefit the For All Kids Foundation, which helps at-risk or otherwise needy children. It’s a noble cause for what’s basically a vanity showcase for O’Donnell’s serviceable (at best) vocalizing with Elton John, Celine Dion, Lauryn Hill, Billy Joel, ‘N Sync, Cher, etc.

*** 1/2 VARIOUS ARTISTS, “Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics,” American/Columbia. This heretical, hysterical collection skewers the notion of wide-eyed innocence through carols sung by potty-mouth kids of “South Park”--Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny--plus Chef (Isaac Hayes), Mr. Mackey, Mr. Garrison and the rest. Cartman’s rendering of “O Holy Night” is a pop-culture masterpiece.

*** VARIOUS ARTISTS, “Festival of Light 2,” Six Degrees. Probably because Hanukkah isn’t one-tenth the commercial monster that Christmas is, the songs on this compilation focus on the mood and meaning of Hanukkah rather than on the gift-giving, shopping, Santa and the rest. Peter Himmelman crafts a seven-minute epic of soulful reverence, “In the Embryo of Silence,” while They Might Be Giants adds a light touch with “Feast of Lights,” which wins this year’s chutzpah award for rhyming “Hanukkah” with “harmonica.”

** 1/2 VARIOUS ARTISTS, “A Very Special Christmas Live,” A&M.; The fourth in the series of albums benefiting the Special Olympics could be listed as Eric Clapton and Friends, because the Stratocaster master is on five of the 11 cuts. Others on hand at this Washington concert include Run-DMC, Tracy Chapman, Sheryl Crow, Jon Bon Jovi and Vanessa Williams.

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Albums and other gifts in this section are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).