Album

Chris RockBigger and Blacker (Dreamworks 50055)Comedy albums have traditionally fallen into one of two categories: joke collections and party records.Joke collections are by far the most familiar of the two. Although they sometimes include racy language or taboo material, most of what they offer is the safe, radio-friendly comedy made by Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, Steve Martin or Steven Wright.Party records, on the other hand, are the kind of album people hide on the back shelves so the kids won't find them.

Even though country recordings are climbing the pop charts the way rock releases used to, there are still significant differences between the expectations folks have for rock stars and the way things work over in Nashville.For instance, when a rock or R&B artist takes a couple years to complete an album, nobody gives it a second thought. Heck, a five year wait for a Bruce Springsteen or Def Leppard album is almost considered normal. In country circles, however, any album that takes more than a year to make is immediately marked "overdue," and that posed something of a problem for Clint Black's third album, "The Hard Way."

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the best album in Wilco's career, and, had it come out last year as scheduled, it would have topped many year-end Top-10 lists. But that doesn't mean diddly in record-company hallways. Wilco's commercial impact makes it a gnat on the forearm of the pop-culture Goliath. But Foxtrot isn't merely an album aimed at some elite audience of cult followers. Its themes couldn't be more universal; it's a meditation both musical and lyrical on what it means to live in the world's most prosperous country.

I WAS SO ready for him to get off the stage I didn't know what to do. It was standing room only that night about three years ago at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York's Times Square. And Glenn Lewis was numbing my brain trying to come off sexy while jacking Stevie Wonder-isms throughout his performance. The neo-soul singer was sharing a bill with Tweet, and I really had come to check her out, anyway. The ebony-haired, pouty-lipped beauty had rocketed into the Top 10 with her naughty single "Oops (Oh My)

They're still the way you remember them. Sort of. If you were around in the early '80s and tuned into this new channel called MTV, then you know all about Duran Duran: five stylish British guys who always looked coolly detached and glamorous. The band was among the first acts to exploit the video medium, using grand cinematic styles. Remember the video for "Rio"? The dudes were jet-setting playboys. And in the clip for "Hungry Like the Wolf," they were great adventurers reminiscent of something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark. And, yes, there was the music: synth-heavy and lyrically ambiguous.

Should Prince's new Musicology go down in the pop annals as "The Asterisk Album?" It has earned one on a couple of fronts -- first, for the sales boost that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician got by distributing a copy of his latest CD to everyone attending his current concert tour, and second, for prompting Billboard magazine this past week to change its sales chart policy because of that. Musicology is Prince's hottest album in years, partially because Nielsen SoundScan, whose figures are used by Billboard to determine chart position, has counted as "sales" the more than 150,000 copies given to fans that have attended his concert tour.

Here's the punch line: Mariah Carey. Now write your own joke. This is basically what Carey has become for most people, following her embarrassing movie bomb Glitter, the accompanying flop soundtrack and the fact that her former record label, Virgin, paid a reported $30 million just to get rid of her. Where once she was America's singing Stepford-like sweetheart, she has become a living farce - Anna Nicole Smith with a 5-octave range. But with the release of her new album, Charmbracelet, out today, Carey is trying to change that image.

It's Hammer time again.At least, he and his record company hope it is. After all, his last album, "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em," sold some 10 million copies, topping the Billboard album charts for 21 weeks. Consequently, they're doing everything imaginable to make sure the rapper's new album, "Too Legit to Quit" (Capitol 98151, arriving in record stores today), can not only touch that, but top it.Don't hold your breath, though. Even though his new album boasts many of the same strengths that made "Please Hammer" a multiplatinum phenomenon, it lacks both the confidence and spontaneity of its predecessor.

It would not be entirely accurate to say I was first in line at the music store.I was not first in line, because, technically, there was no line.It was just me.I was there to purchase the new Beatles album, which was released yesterday. These were words -- new Beatles album -- I never expected to say again in that order. The last new Beatles album to hit the stores was "Let It Be" in 1970, and the boys had already broken up by then, meaning Linda McCartney would soon be allowed to play keyboard in public.

Brave, the title of Jennifer Lopez's new album out today, is a misnomer. And the cover shot, featuring the pop star in an intense face-off with her own image, is also misleading. The title and packaging suggest that J. Lo is breaking new artistic ground, that she's challenging herself to do more than the trend-conscious dance-pop that pushed her four previous albums to multiplatinum sales. But that isn't the case at all. Brave is the safest, most predictable album Lopez has recorded. Maybe pregnancy, as it's been rumored, has brought out a tamer side, also seen during her tepid performance with Marc Anthony Friday night at the Verizon Center in Washington.