SOUND CHECK.

Gram Parsons/``Another Side of This Life'' (Sundazed)

It's been a banner year for Parsons necrophiliacs, what with caches of unrecorded lyrics found and finally set to music and dozens of acts (see Psychedelic Cowboys, elsewhere on this page) inspired by the lost father of country rock riding onto the Americana scene.

Now, ``Another Side of This Life'' could be the ultimate Christmas gift for Gramaholics. It's 18 tracks that the teenage Parsons, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, cut back home in Florida on friend Jim Carlton's Sony reel-to-reel during 1965 and 1966.

The numbers reveal the nascent cosmic cowboy trying on addiction laments (shades of!), the blues and earnest folk fashions of the era, sometimes as awkwardly as any rich, good-looking white boy was bound to sound.

But true devotees will thrill to hear the first flowering of unique phrasing and delicate, tightrope quaver in the voice that whiskey would mellow and drugs crack into the holy vocal ghost of an entire musical movement. Three and one half stars

- Bob Strauss

Xu Xu Fang/``Los Angeles During the Winter of '99'' (Cowboy Small's Sound Ranch)

This vivid cinematic concept album by local composer Bobby Tamkin weaves dialogue, spooky Ennio Morricone-influenced faux soundtrack music, rock rave-ups and fake jazz into a hard-boiled pulp tale of paranoia.

It's a steamy musical descent into Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles complete with the film noir sounds of heels against pavement, traffic, crowded nightclubs, ringing phones and the narrative of a hit man named Ritchie who makes a murderous mistake. Creepy, compelling and utterly fascinating, ``Los Angeles During the Winter of '99'' is a highly recommended listening adventure. Three and one half stars

- Fred Shuster

S Club 7/``S Club 7'' (Interscope)

Kiddie pop for the Radio Disney generation. That's S Club 7 for you. This group of seven guys and girls from the U.K. sing about friendship, love and good times like it's going out of style.

The hip-hop-flavored ``Natural,'' funky ``Best Friend,'' soulful ``All in Love Is Fair'' and islandy ``I'll Keep Waiting'' are catchy to the core - just the way kids like it. But the best part is kids can watch S Club 7 every week on cable TV's Fox Family Channel.

The group stars in its own comedy series (``S Club 7 in L.A.'') about a singing group trying to crack the big time. Check local listings for dates and times. Three stars

- Sandra Barrera

The Psychedelic Cowboys/``Tragic Songs and Hop-A-Longs'' (Stone Legal Records)

From their name right on down to the embroidered Nudie suits they wear, this L.A. outfit owes a lot to its early '70s forebears, the original Flying Burrito Brothers.

But the influences here range well past high nasal versions of Gram Parsons/Chris Hillman harmonies; they encompass the profound psychic dislocation that Merle, Woody and the Louvin Brothers, among others, felt as country boys in a change-stoned world.

Singer-songwriter John Harlan has a frisky sense of humor about it all, too; the lonesome cowpoke antiheroes of ``Oklahoma'' and ``Good Ole Boy in Gomorrah'' know, at heart, that they're better off in weird L.A. than any nostalgically imagined, dysfunction-and-boredom-plagued heartland. And as eclectic retro goes, you gotta love the sitar-pedal steel duel on ``Say a Prayer'' more than most of 'em. Four stars

- B.S.

Cyndi Boste/``Home Truths'' (MRA)

American roots-influenced Australian singer-songwriter Boste sounds like her Alabama trailer park has just been flattened by tornadoes - and I mean that in the best way.

Her husky blue voice wraps allusive tales of bad treatment and regret in passion and surprising warmth (she sounds a bit like Stevie Nicks stripped of all princess illusions), while her band's dire, Southern electricity is enriched by judicious doses of infernal autoharp and dobro. Available at www.milesofmusic.com, or check out the artist's own Web site (www.cyndiboste.com). Four stars

- B.S.

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5 photos

Photo:

(1) no caption (Gram Parsons)

(2 -- 5) no caption (cd covers)