BEST-SELLING CDS

1. HERE FOR THE PARTY

Gretchen Wilson

1 week on chart

Style

Something-for-everyone country-by numbers.

Objectionable material

"Redneck Woman" and the title cut (for casual cursing and/or celebrating white-trashiness at its most slatternly).

Worldview

"Well, I'm an eight-ball-shooting, double-fisted-drinking son of a gun. / I wear my jeans a little tight / just to watch the boys come undone."

Overall quality

The voice is all right but not very country, raising suspicions that fellas may be buying the disc for the figure-flattering booklet photos.

2. WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

Kenny Chesney

15 weeks on chart

Style

Dwight Yoakam with the rough edges sanded, polished, and shellacked.

Worldview

"He was raised to think like his dad, / narrow mind full of hate on the road to nowhere fast / till the grace of God got in the way. / Then he saw the light and hit his knees and cried and said a prayer, / rose up a brand new man."

Overall quality

As catchy as it is superficial.

3. GOLDEN ROAD

Keith Urban

84 weeks on chart

Style

Country so scrawny it's cute (and vice versa).

Objectionable material

"You Look Good in My Shirt" (intimations of immorality).

Worldview

"Call it an angel, / call it a muse, / and call it karma that you've got comin' to you. / What's the difference? / What's in a name? / What matters most is never ever losin' faith" ("You're Not Alone Tonight").

Overall quality

As superficial as it is catchy.

4. SHOCK'N Y'ALL

Toby Keith

28 weeks on chart

Style

Country-rock, rock-country, rock-rock, country-country.

Objectionable material

"I Love This Bar," "The Taliban Song" (profanity), "Sweet" (debauchery fondly anticipated), "Nights I Can't Remember, Friends I'll Never Forget," "Weed with Willie" (debauchery fondly recalled), "Whiskey Girl" (casual cursing).

Worldview

"Don't my baby look good in them blue jeans? / Tight on the top with a belly button ring, / a little tattoo somewhere in between."

Overall quality

Uneven.

5. VAN LEAR ROSE

Loretta Lynn

3 weeks on chart

Style

Kentucky-holler country, the high-profile involvement of the Detroit garage-rocker Jack White notwithstanding.

Worldview

"I've heard people say, / 'Why is my child blind?' / ... Our blessed Father who gives us life / has the power to take it away. / There's no reason for what He does. / God makes no mistakes."

Overall quality

Funny, feisty, spunky, and funky-in short, no mere imitation of Rick Rubin doing Johnny Cash.

In the spotlight

Ancient Echoes (World Library Publications), the latest album from the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble, is the musical equivalent of pouring old wine into old wineskins. Ecumenically subtitled "Music from the Time of Jesus and Jerusalem's Second Temple," it collects Aramaic prayers, Levitical music, and Essene chants, sets them to ancient melodies and instrumentation (ouds, guimbiris, kinnors, shabbabahs, rabbabahs, et al.), and painstakingly authenticates them in a CD booklet that's more textbook than libretto.

Admittedly, not every tin-eared inhabitant of our world will come to such a project with ears to hear. Those willing to give this music the time it deserves, however, will not only find the mists of time dispersing but also the realization dawning that from the burnt-sienna cover art to the music's original-language lyrics (e.g., the Ten Commandments-recounting "Wa y'daber Elohim [And God Spoke]"), this album is the real soundtrack to The Passion of the Christ.