SOUND CHECK.

112/``Part III'' (Bad Boy/Arista)

Here's something new - a quartet of smiling, silky-smooth r&b crooners harmonizing vapid love lyrics over throbbing hip-hop beats.

You haven't seen or heard anything like it - since Wednesday, anyway. For its third album, Atlanta-based 112 closely follows the familiar formula set by New Edition and Boyz II Men. It's new only if you've been living in a distant solar system for the past 15 years. Or Palmdale.

While there's no denying the mass appeal of pretty-sounding groups like the so-soothing 112, whose recent single, ``It's Over Now,'' hit the Top 10, there's nothing truly captivating about it.

Produced by the increasingly mediocre Bad Boy cartel with a shrewd eye on the female radio audience that laps up this sort of thing, the largely self-produced ``Part III'' is simply monotonous, nuzzling the listener through a filler-packed 17 tracks of romantic mush typified by the generic ballads ``Player,'' ``Sweet Love,'' ``Still in Love'' and ``I Think.''

It's hard to resist the clever seduction techniques at work here. After a few songs you find yourself beginning to give in; by the sixth, you're asleep. One and one half stars

- Fred Shuster

Various/``Hollywood Goes Wild!'' (RPH)

They've portrayed gladiators, natural-born killers and cyber-generated saviors of mankind. Now, Hollywood's biggest and brightest play rock stars on a compilation benefiting a good cause - the Wildlife Waystation, the Angeles National Forest-based refuge for mistreated and injured exotic animals.

Although the novelty factor is high, the disc has moments, such as Bijou Phillips' hypnotic ``Polite,'' Mare Winningham's wistful ``It's So Hard'' and Bruce Willis' convincingly gritty reading of the blues classic ``Crazy Mixed-Up World.''

Also acceptable are Juliette Lewis' dramatic delivery on ``Hardly Wait,'' which successfully mimicks the song's intense composer, PJ Harvey, and Dogstar's Keanu Reeves, offering his best Bono on ``Your World.''

But most actors here would be best advised to hold onto their day jobs. Exhibit A: Oscar winner Russell Crowe's ``The Photograph Kills,'' a goth-rock throwback about the pitfalls of fame that suggests Maximus fronting the Cure.

Additionally, walk-ons from Brad Pitt, Jeff Goldblum, Billy Bob Thornton, Milla Jovovich and an Iggy Pop/Johnny Depp duet make you imagine a new statuette where little golden Oscar has his fingers in his ears. Three stars

- Sandra Barrera

Eric Taylor/``Scuffletown'' (Eminent)

A longtime member of the Houston troubadour scene that included the late Townes Van Zandt (two of whose songs are covered here), Taylor goes in for specifically detailed Gothic nightscapes, pitched from a variety of haunting viewpoints.

Whether it's a child's confused apprehension of his mom's new man (``Happy Ending''), a wildly dysfunctional preacher's sustaining self- delusions (``White Bone'') or the most original reworking yet of Blind Willie McTell's oft-covered murder ballad, ``Delia,'' Taylor's parched, flatplains voice brings a resonant authority to each chilling, poignant tale. Three and one half stars

- Bob Strauss

Dave Brubeck/``From the USA & UK'' (Telarc)

Brubeck seems more prolific than ever, which is saying something considering he's one of the most-recorded jazz pianists in history.

At 80, the keyboardist remains a vital force, his improvisational strength such that he can tackle two extended takes of the classic ``Take Five'' and make both different and dynamic.

This double album contains tracks from a 1995 date at the Washington National Cathedral and a 1998 concert at London's Royal Festival Hall. Brubeck's label has culled material from these gigs before, but, remarkably, there's plenty of solid stuff left to justify another set.

As far as we're concerned, Brubeck can keep the music coming. Three stars

- Glenn Whipp

Tim Buckley/``The Morning Glory Anthology''

There's no easy niche in which to put Tim Buckley, the singer-songwriter who died in 1975 at the age of 28 of a heroin overdose. Ultimately, it was the voice - a soaring, entrancing, passionate, angelic tenor - that set Buckley apart from the others in the folkie scene of the the '60s. His songwriting was spotty. Early on he sometimes collaborated with poet Larry Beckett, and some songs on this collection such as ``No Man Can Find the War'' seem too precious. Yet on ``Once I Was,'' a solo effort, any of that strained artiness melts away in the power of Buckley's vocal. After two folk-tinged albums, Buckley added a jazz-strain to his music. Often the songs like ``Buzzin' Fly,'' ``Strange Feelin' or ``Happy Time'' were simple chord progressions or bluesy riffs that his voice would swoop and fly over, creating an intoxicating effect. But Buckley never found much success with fans, and his career always seemed in flux. It's too bad this collection doesn't include ``Dolphins,'' written by Fred Neil, whose vocal styling surely influenced Buckley's sound. Three stars

- Rob Lowman

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Photo: (1 -- 2) BAD BOY

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