In Brief

** Aaron Carter, “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It),” Jive. The 12-year-old is staking out the final niche to be filled in the teen-pop universe--he’s a male knee-high solo artist out to challenge Britney, Christina and all the other teeny-bop divas. As a singer, Carter’s a bit of a wimp--the candied, soft-headed pop songs on his album are a return to the bubble-gum platitudes of such ‘70s artists as Donny Osmond. Still, Carter, who is Backstreet Boy Nick Carter’s younger brother, is just cute as buttons, and there’s no underestimating the value of good genes.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.