Christmas comes early for Kanye West, Justin Bieber fans

Some of the best (and most affordable) gifts of the holiday shopping season are now being dropped from the CD-ladened bags of music talents like Kanye West, teen sensation Justin Bieber and country rocker Keith Urban.

HIP-HOPERATICS: "I found bravery in my bravado," Kanye West shares in the lead track to "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (Roc-A-Fella Records, A). And whoa, what a great marketing/image tool he's discovered, too.

West is the mad genius with the loaded (verbal) gun - shooting off his mouth at presidents and pop stars. Then he turns the controversy into self-referential art that celebrates his machismo, truth-telling and touch of insanity.

Is there a whole lot of the latter on the drama king's way-over-the-top new creation? You bet!

He's the "abomination in Obama-nation," the guy who "went from most favorite to most hated." Maybe that explains why his bags are always searched at the airport, the guy suggests. 'Cause "Everybody knows I'm a m----------- monster."

Clearly, though, West is having fun at his and our expense, most especially on the amazing piece of work that is "Runaway," wherein the artist offers up a "toast for the douche bags . . . the a---- . . . the scumbags." One might conclude he's talking about himself, until West drops a line about "the jerk-offs that never take work off" and concludes that he/we should all run for our lives.

In his semicrazed comic-tragic persona, West has become a clown to rival Pagliacci. And his emotional quotient ties perfectly to the man's gloriously whack musical visions, these towering infernos of sound blending organic instruments and high-tech artifice, star-strewn choirs and guest rappers while sampling some of the heaviest (and most diverse) of source materials.

We're talking everything from King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" and Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" to Manu Dibango's "Soul Makossa" and original rapper Gil Scott-Heron's rumination "Who Will Survive in America?"

You might start to fear that "just one more" thin mint of this going-for-baroque, hip-hoperatic confection will make your head and belly blow up.

Then just in the nick of time, comedian Chris Rock pops in at the 11th hour to purge the excesses with a ridiculous rant about the pleasures of "P."

We surrender!

BIEBER'S BACK: Everything Justin Bieber touches is turning to platinum. The teen star (and Usher prodigy) ruled Sunday at the American Music Awards. And no doubt his young fans will be pushing parental units toward Walmart on Friday to snatch up the store-exclusive Bieber album "My Worlds Acoustic" (Island, B).

The retread set is short on new material and not fully embracing the "acoustic" premise. (Note the synthesized string keyboards on "One Less Lonely Girl" and even lusher, show-capping "Pray.") But by and large, Bieber's soul-inflected, girlie-man voice does seems more intimate, floating atop a feather bed of strummy guitars, hand drums and shaker percussion.

URBAN OUTFITTING: If he'd debuted in the era of the Eagles, Dan Fogelberg and Kenny Loggins, Australian export Keith Urban would have become a staple of album-rock radio. But nowadays, anyone with a hint of twang is immediately sent to country radioland, and lots of music fans who'd otherwise enjoy Keith's polished tunes, killer vocals and jammed-out guitar breaks don't have a clue about him.

For latecomers, "Get Closer" (Capitol, B+) marks a good introduction, pumped up with positive songs for his love and inspiration, wife Nicole Kidman. My only complaint? The basic set is even shorter than the (10-track) norm for country music, clocking in with just eight tracks in 33 minutes (a music-industry ploy to reduce album pricing to $8 or $9).

True believers should go for the "limited edition" exclusive at Target, which adds three more Urban newbies plus four of his hits rocked out live.

GLOBAL REACH: Glad to see that the Barbadian-born, cherry-tressed popster Rihanna is over her Chris Brown grudge match and back to making frothy, sexy, on-the-prowl-for-love music on "Loud" (Def Jam, B). It's odd how her island-flavored, dance-hall enunciation comes and goes, but Rihanna owns it way better than say, Bieber (trying out the accent on his rephrased "Baby").

There's an even more exotic, British tint to the smooth-rapping and sophisti-soul singing of the Floacist as she "Presents Floetic Soul" (Shanachie, B+). It's her first solo project since the breakup of the transplanted-to-Philly duo Floetry. From the (yoga?) inspired opener "Breathe" to the jazzy capper "Alright Then," this set is all about the power of positive thinking, living and loving, finding calm in yourself and envisioning the future with others. Great holiday wishes.

On paper, the notion of a South Korean jazz singer taking on a set of (mostly) Brazilian pop seems an odd conceit. Still, the wispy-voiced Yeahwon Shin quickly won my heart with her haunting, delicate takes on songs like Milton Nascimento's "Travessia" ("Bridges") on her album simply titled "Yeahwon" (Artist Share, A-).

Have you relished Astor Piazzolla's classy renderings of Argentine tango music? If so, get swept up in the even more elegant "Fuerza Milonguera" (SoundBrush Records, A) as served by the Uruguay-based ensemble of (accordionlike) bandoneones, violins, cello, piano, bass, guitar and vocals answering to the name Raul Jaurena and His Tango Orchestra. Seems like a Kimmel Center natural.

One of the most successful exports of politically pointed, multicultural music, South African-born Johnny Clegg is still mixing global consciousness and good vibrations on "Human" (B+), released stateside by the West Chester-based Appleseed label. Think earthy, percolating anthems in the tradition of the Police, Paul Simon and the Hooters.