SOUND CHECK.

Backstreet Boys/``Black & Blue'' (Jive)

Could anyone fall in and out of love more often than the Backstreet Boys on ``Black & Blue?''

The harmony heartthrobs' third album is a rollercoaster ride of I'm-sorrys and I-love-yous. Granted, it gets pretty nauseating during the teary ``It's True'' and ``How Did I Fall In Love With You,'' as well as cheesy made-for-wedding anthems like ``I Promise You (With Everything I Am),'' ``Time'' and ``Yes I Will.'' But the majority of the set is a pretty smooth ride.

``Black & Blue'' (the Rolling Stones used the same album title in 1976) opens with the guilty player's march, ``The Call,'' and runs a gamut of emotions. There's the apologetic pop ballad, ``Shape of My Heart,'' the he's-not-good-enough-for-you dance track, ``Get Another Boyfriend,'' and the head-over-heels hip-hop beat of ``Shining Star.''

Funny thing about that song. It's one of five mediocre tracks co-written by the boys.

Look for the Backstreeters at the Pond on March 5. Three and one half stars

- Sandra Barrera

Oscar Peterson Quartet/``Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite'' (Telarc)

Canada's greatest jazz pianist gives a little back to his homeland on this disc, which commemorates a series of linked hiking trails that span some 10,000 miles. Peterson and his quartet (guitarist Ulf Wakenius, bassist Niels Henning-Orsted Pedersen and drummer Martin Drew) are supported by Michel Legrand's strings, which bathe the music in a warm glow. Peterson, now 75, still swings, albeit sedately. The mellow noodlings on ``Trail of Dreams'' aren't exactly the perfect soundtrack for a full-steam-ahead hike, but they'll do for relaxation by the campfire afterward. Three stars

- Glenn Whipp

Soundtrack/``O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (Mercury)

Produced by the estimable T-Bone Burnett, this soundtrack to the Coen Brothers' wacky reworking of Homer's ``Odyssey'' as a 1930s chain gang farce (!) is, remarkably, the Southern music event of the year.

Gathering a stellar cast of off-Nashville traditionalists (Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Norman Blake, the Whites, the Cox Family), bluegrass legends (Ralph Stanley and his Brothers), young blues Turks (Chris Thomas King) and gospel greats (the Fairfield Four), Burnett conducts a melodious and rugged revival meeting of historical idioms.

The styles include work songs, spirituals, hobo hoots (there's an original recording of Harry McClintock's ``Big Rock Candy Mountain'), Jimmie Rodgers and Carter Family classics, and four different, all-stirring renditions of ``Man of Constant Sorrow.''

Ethereal harmonies, superb arrangements, boisterous humor and dead seriousness about the pre-commercialized glory of American folk forms make this a collection everyone and their brother will want to hear. In stores Tuesday. Four stars

- Bob Strauss

Marilyn Manson/``Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)'' (Nothing/Interscope)

``Holy Wood'' is supposed to be Part 1 of Manson's fire-and-brimstone trilogy, whose story concludes with 1996's ``Antichrist Superstar'' and works its way to the middle in 1998's ``Mechanical Animals.''

Knowing that should explain why the album sounds so much like its predecessors. Or maybe that's just an excuse to keep spouting the usual fury.

``Holy Wood'' finds Manson sticking out his serpent's tongue at the existence of God (the theme of virtually every song on the album) over a pounding amalgam of heavy drums, guitars and bass.

It rocks, but don't be fooled. This is really just the same old, same old. Two stars

- S.B.

Blur/``Best of Blur'' (Virgin)

Here's one for the fans - a double-disc by Britpop outfit Blur that features its greatest hits - studio and live cuts - from the past 10 years.

Included alongside winners like ``Bettlebum,'' ``Song 2,'' ``Girls And Boys'' and ``Country House,'' is the sole newie, ``Music Is My Radar,'' which unfortunately won't make you stand up and shout ``Woo-hoo!'' Three and one half stars

- S.B.

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Photo:

(1) no caption (Backstreet Boys)

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