SOUND CHECK.

Pras/``Ghetto Supastar'' (Ruffhouse/Columbia)

The latest Fugee to drop a solo disc, Pras Michel is selling records because of the hooky title track, which owes its life to a Bee Gees sample and was first exposed on the ``Bulworth'' soundtrack. While the beats and grooves here are generally OK, co-producer Pras is no free-styler, and his rapping skills pale next to guests like Canibus and Mack 10. Making matters worse, he includes 12 excruciating minutes of ham-fisted comedy - you guessed it: answering-machine skits, hip-hop's most tired cliche. Two stars

- Fred Shuster

Marianne Faithfull/``A Perfect Stranger: the Island Anthology'' (Island)

Oh, the ennui, the blasted, fractured cosmopolitan destruction. Oh, the bliss. Island has begun a fortuitous series of two-CD compilations of some of its best artists from the past three decades, and Faithfull gets the full treatment here. After a glamorous few years in the spotlight in the late '60s as a Rolling Stones hanger-on, including co-writing credit on ``Sister Morphine'' (her version is included in the compilation), Faithfull fell into a drug-addled decline for a few years before re-emerging in the late 1970s with a series of strong records. The compilation starts with her best-known solo song, ``Broken English,'' and keeps going from there in all the snarling, cracked beauty that characterized Faithfull's work. If you like an edge to your music, this razor will slice through your soul. Three and one half stars

- David Bloom

Linton Kwesi Johnson/``Independant Intavenshan'' (Island)

LKJ is the dub master his own self, the jiggling riddims and loopy synth squiggles veering off into inner space and taking the listener along for the ride. It's great music for the middle of the night. Another of Island's two-disc career retrospectives, this one is pure delight for anyone who wants the real stuff from an essential Jamaican artist who heavily influenced the Clash among many others. Put this stuff on and float over funky Kingston in your own tricked-out flying saucer. Four stars

- David Bloom

Eric B. & Rakim/``Paid in Full - The Platinum Edition'' (Island)

One of the best rap acts around before the gangsta takeover, these guys were smarter than most of their competitors, with beats as good as any, real melodic lines and something thoughtful to say. Island gives the duo the two-disc retrospective treatment as well, though the second disc is, appropriately, mostly remixes and dub versions of the hits on disc one. Essential rap history, for those who don't think that's an oxymoron. Three and one half stars

- David Bloom

Randy Newman/``Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman'' (Warner Archives/Rhino)

Brimming with sarcasm and humor, cast with thoughtless, selfish, ignorant and all-too-real characters, Newman's songs play like mini-tragedies and dramas set to music. Collectively, they're one big plea for tolerance and dignity. (``Treat a man like dirt, give him no respect, oh yeah, and expect something dirty in return,'' he sings in ``Can't Keep a Good Man Down''). But many of Newman's songs on this excellent 105-cut, four-CD career retrospective have been misinterpreted. That's partly because he is a painstaking lyricist who refuses to state the obvious, who sucks listeners in with bizarre characters making outrageous (but what they think are logical) statements. His song ``Rednecks,'' which caught almost as much flak as ``Short People,'' was not just about racism in the South. It chastised the nation for bigotry. The character in ``Political Science,'' making a case for dropping ``the big one'' on countries that don't appreciate the good ol' U.S.A., is no patriot. The man declaring, ``My life is good'' in the song of the same name is really in a bittersweet state of denial as his family falls apart. Four stars

- Scott Benarde, Palm Beach Post

Beck/``Mutations'' (Bong Load/Geffen)

This disc is closer in spirit to Beck's pre-Dust Brothers folk-blues excursions. It's slow, undanceable, mostly acoustic, and he sings - really - in mournful multitracked harmonies. The effort is more loving than ironic, virtually hookless in comparison to his best stuff, and in spite of some high-falutin' poetry, it's surprisingly unintellectual and suggestive of almost-convincing self-loathing (``It's so easy to laugh at yourself when all those jokes have already been written''). It's also subtly reminiscent of Van Morrison, with a legitimate song-cycle in which hooks, moods, visual images and poetic conceits are repeated and morphed. But, as suggested in the lyric above, ``Mutations'' lacks Beck's trump - a sense of humor - and will go down in the Beck anthology as a sweet trifle for serious fans, an under-the-breath remark between Grand Statements. Three stars

- Kate Sullivan, St. Paul Pioneer Press 

Astor Piazzolla and the New Tango Quintet/``Tango: Zero Hour'' (Nonesuch)

This original recording dates from 1986, when Piazzolla was at the height of his powers and had gathered around him four other musicians of like spirit: Fernando Suarez Paz (violin), Pablo Ziegler (piano), Horacio Malvicino Sr. (guitar) and Hector Console (bass). The violin playing by Paz is especially bewitching. He makes a wordless instrument all but speak, gliding in and out of the score like a ghostly dancer. Just as impressive is the work of double-bassist Console in ``Contrabajisimo,'' which makes this sometimes unwieldy instrument sound lithe and suave. The talents of the whole group are spotlighted in the ``Concierto para quinteto.'' Though it lasts only nine minutes, this is a real concerto in which each player has a chance to shine and all join together in friendly rivalry. Three stars

- Michael Fleming, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Girl Bros./``Girl Bros.'' (Girl Bros. Inc.)

Wendy Coleman and Lisa Melvoin helped make the Revolution, Prince's old band, revolutionary. Then they issued a string of trippy and erratic records that, despite several minor masterpieces, were largely ignored. Then they just disappeared. The duo never stopped writing taut, disciplined songs, however. With this latest incarnation, Wendy and Lisa move away from mechanistic funk to probe more contemplative singer-songwriter themes: There are songs about gratitude, plus gorgeously harmonized love odes and compositions that are more harmonically rich than most pop. Also here are several elegies to Lisa's late brother Jonathan, and the most powerful of these, ``I Will,'' is a series of stirring, resolute vows. Three stars

- Tom Moon, Philadelphia Inquirer

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7 Photos

Photo: (1) Randy Newman

(2--7) no caption (CD covers)