Highs, Lows of Christmas Carols on CD

For aficionados of Christmas pop, 1992 is a mixed year at best for CD stocking stuffers. Nonetheless, Garth Brooks’ platinum “Beyond the Season� and the just-released “A Very Special Christmas 2� sampler, among a sleighful of other Bing wanna-bes, are likely to keep cash registers ringing these next two months.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).

Even more than the 1987 original, the uneven charity album “A Very Special Christmas 2� (**1/2) is chock-full of expendable star turns. You haven’t experienced annoying until you’ve heard Wilson Phillips turn “Silent Night� into one of their trademark harmonic convergences--unless, that is, you’ve first heard Debbie Gibson capsize “Sleigh Ride� with cuteness. Michael Bolton almost makes it all the way through a relatively subdued “White Christmas� without going for the Big Notes, but can’t help himself in the snow-melting final bars.

Neither one of a couple of promising duets--one between Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love, the other pairing Cyndi Lauper with a 1947 tape of Frank Sinatra--offers double the fun. But Bonnie Raitt and bluesy Charles Brown don’t disappoint, making the perfect match on the latter’s classic “Merry Christmas Baby,� the album’s standout track.

The chanciest choice comes from Sinead O’Connor: Bob Dylan’s non-Christmas but bill-fitting hymn “I Believe in You,� which--with lines like, “They look at me and frown / They’d like to drive me from this town�--has certainly proved prophetic. O’Connor was scheduled to sing it at the Dylan tribute; imagine how triumphantly she would’ve come off had she done this amid the jeers instead of her brat act.

Among country releases, Garth Brooks’ “Beyond the Season� (***) and Travis Tritt’s “Loving Time of the Year� (** 1/2) both have the good taste to feature Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy�; Tritt earns extra points for including a second Owens tune, too. Up-and-comer Tritt’s frisky collection rocks out more, but superstar Brooks maintains the slight edge with a gift for balladry befitting the religious material dominating his album.

Amy Grant’s “Home for Christmas� (**) comes as a considerable letdown, following the fun of her first, far more charming Christmas album a decade ago. With this subdued set, it’s as if she’s determinedly trying not to be “cute� anymore, but the self-conscious classiness--complete with lifeless orchestra--casts her as middle-aged before her time.

Grant’s at least inherently suited for this stuff. But Neil Diamond’s “The Christmas Album� (*) makes his interpretive limitations excruciatingly evident. Diamond brings the same slightly melodramatic approach to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing� and “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town�; you half-expect him to interject “they come to America!� in both instances.

For a toxic antidote to Diamond’s sugar, check out the equally awful Mojo Nixon’s “Horny Holidays� (*1/2), which rockingly blasphemes every tradition in sight. By the time Nixon gets around to “We three kings of Orient are / Drinking whiskey in a nude bar,� even the satirically inclined may find their good humor exhausted.

Ready for reverence again? The remarkably ambitious “Handel’s Messiah--A Soulful Celebration� (***) recasts the 18th-Century oratorio as an R&B; suite. It’ll be blasphemy to some classical hardliners, but the results--incorporating pop, jazz, rap and hip-hop--are more fun than you’d expect. Take 6 and Stevie Wonder share vocals on the catchily titled “O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion�; other key performers include Al Jarreau, Tevin Campbell, the Yellowjackets and a host of black gospel favorites.

Speaking of black gospel, the Sounds of Blackness’ “The Night Before Christmas--A Musical Fantasy� (***) may be the first album in that genre to have a full choir joyfully singing the praises of . . . Kris Kringle. Two terrific Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis-produced secular Christmas tracks lead off the album, followed by a quick set of hymns before the lengthy, playful title suite gets underway. This spunky set and “Messiah� have it hands and hosannas down over other current Christmas releases for pure freshness.