GOING GAGA: Watching Lady GaGa "cat fight" with Madonna and do her herky-jerky dance routines on "Saturday Night Live" was fun to watch. But didja notice, the backup vocalists almost drown this "singer" out?

Mariah Carey's surprisingly tame new album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" (Island, C+), also leaves me cold. Only the set-closing cover of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" serves up some the old Mariah firepower. But how about the album's foldout cover celebrating this personality's bountiful physical charms? Now that's distraction.

Faring a bit better, though still leaving me underwhelmed, is the much frothed about Gossip and their new album "Music For Men" (Columbia, B). The music, veering from synthy dance pop to punk rock to "Heard It Through the Grapevine"-quoting soul, is tightly and sleekly wrought by this buzzy trio. And lead singer Beth Ditto has a compelling, quivering vocal nature that bores right into the brain.

It's hard to imagine much of this stuff lasting past lunchtime. But the image of Ms. Ditto - a roly-poly creature in the ambisexual tradition of Divine - adds a layer of irony to every heart-stressed lament.

MEMBERS ONLY: If you thought Spinal Tap did funny send-ups of macho metal rockers, you're gonna be on in hysterics on the floor listening to Steel Panther and their 20-years-in-the-making debut "Feel the Steel" (Universal Republic, B+). Making wretched fun of self-absorbed hair bands, there's nary a song that doesn't brag explicitly about putting it to some lucky groupie or hot hooker.

Guys, don't share this rubbish with p.c.-minded, humorless girlfriends and wives, unless you want to send them (or yourself) packing. And steer Jon Bon Jovi out of ear shot of their parodistic power ballads.

PLAYING FOR REAL: Veering from the ridiculous to the sublime are two albums that could really tear your heart out.

"Ciao My Shining Star" (Shout! Factory, B+) spotlights tunes by Mark Mulcahy (of Miracle Legion fame) about the love of his life and mother of his twin children, Melissa Rich, who died last year. Starkly simple and personal, the "wish I had a shoulder to cry on" nature of numbers like "Micon the Icon" may have been too much for Mulcahy to sing himself. So instead, a big bunch of friends - including Radiohead's Thom Yorke and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, plus bands like Dinosaur Jr., the National and Mercury Rev - have rallied to do them up as both a tribute to Melissa and a fundraiser for Mark.

While a prisoner of his wheelchair, Vic Chesnutt lets his imagination out to play on the crafty, chamber pop and rock flavored "At The Cut" (Constellation, B). Now he's flying over the landscape ("We Hovered With Short Wings"), now cutting down a "Chinaberry Tree," now on a date with a girl at the "Concord Country Jubilee," before finally settling back into his paralyzed state on "It Is What It Is." In the latter, he characterizes himself " 'The Phantom of the Opera' singing 'Beauty and the Beast.' "

Only hurts when it hurts.

OLD SOUL FEELING: Lots of guys are newly reworking those old-school soul riffs, from the hip-hop/R&B mashups of Ghostface Killah and friends on "Ghostdini Wizard of Poetry" (Def Jam, B-) to the Decisions featuring Tre Williams' "The Bleeding Edge" (Decision Records, B).

The former finds the rapper tangling with crooners like Raheem "Radio" DeVaughn and John Legend; the latter boasts deep soul treatments of Carole King's "It's Too Late" and Latimore's "Let's Straighten It Out." But the past-blaster that's really grabbing me is the Dynamites featuring Charles Walker on "Burn It Down" (Outta Sight, B+), with new but period-perfect tunes, bluesy Walker vocals and peppery horn and organ-scorched arrangements evoking the glory daze of James Brown, Junior Walker & the Allstars, Electric Flag and War.

JAZZ NOTES: After some rebellious turns toward global electronica, Bebel Gilberto embraces her balmy, bossa nova roots on "All In One" (Verve, B-). Why, she's even covering dad Joao's "Bim Bom."

The Manhattan Transfer take on "The Chick Corea Songbook" (Four Quarters, B) with four-part vocals almost as florid as the composer's Mediterranean- flavored melodies.

With vibes and electric guitar up front, the "Mike Mainieri/Marnix Busstra Quartet" (NYC Records, B+) compares favorably to the classic collaborations of Gary Burton and Pat Metheny.