Super Tuesday!

Garth Brooks. Whitney Houston. Jewel. For music lovers, Christmas would seem to have arrived early: more than 10 major pop acts are issuing new CDs on the single day of Nov. 17, making it the heaviest release date ever. Music-industry folks have dubbed it Super Tuesday.

The music business could use the lift. Album sales in 1998 are up only 4.3% over 1997, so record companies are praying for a flashy fourth quarter (the holiday season accounts for 40% to 60% of annual record sales). DreamWorks, for example, is releasing not one but three sound tracks (pop, country and inspirational) to its film The Prince of Egypt. Will fans be overjoyed or overwhelmed? James ("Jimmy Jam") Harris, who produced a song on one of the sound tracks, says Super Tuesday has the industry "holding its breath."

Producer Sean ("Puffy") Combs, head of Bad Boy Records, pushed back the release date for one of his groups, the vocal quartet 112, to avoid the crush. "People are putting out albums because it's the holiday, not because the albums are ready," says Combs. "There's a lot of greed out there." He predicts the aftermath of Super Tuesday won't be pretty: "It's going to look like a crash on Wall Street."

Success doesn't require a gaudy debut. Jewel's debut sold 1,000 copies its first week; it went on to sell 6.2 million. Ruffhouse Records' head, Chris Schwartz, says CDs that survive this fall will need "something special." Here's what they're offering.

GARTH BROOKS DOUBLE LIVE [rating: 2 1/2 musical notes] PREVIOUS ALBUM Limited Series, 1998 COPIES SOLD 1.4 million

Garth Brooks is the king of excess--he just wears a cowboy hat instead of a crown. Everything he does seems to come accompanied by exclamation marks. His new album isn't just one CD but two! His new live version of Friends in Low Places stretches on for almost nine minutes! And, to push Double Live, he's planning one of the most ambitious promotional campaigns of the year! Says Joe Kvidera, general manager of Tower Records in Chicago's Lincoln Park: "He's just so relentless promoting his stuff. It's kind of scary."

On Tuesday, Brooks will do a closed-circuit performance that will be beamed to 2,300 Wal-Marts across the country; the next day he'll do a one-hour special on NBC, taking questions from fans via telephone and e-mail. Garth's goal: to sell 1 million copies in one week. And then he wants to shoot fire out of his eyes like a god. (Just joking about that last part.)

The songs on Double Live are mostly good, home-cooked fun, but sitting through the 26-song album is a bit like enduring a 26-course meal. The best song is the calmest: Brooks' solemn reading of Bob Dylan's To Make You Feel My Love. The album's biggest flaw is American Honky-Tonk Bar Association, a demagogic number that mocks welfare recipients. A true populist would show empathy for people who can't afford his albums.

WHITNEY HOUSTON MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE [rating: 2 1/2 musical notes] PREVIOUS ALBUM I'm Your Baby Tonight, 1990 COPIES SOLD 2.3 million

Whitney Houston went into the studio planning to sweeten up a greatest-hits album with a few new songs; she ended up finishing a full new album. Arista chief Clive Davis says the project came together "literally in the last eight weeks."

The CD tries to update Houston's soul-lite formula. Wyclef Jean co-wrote the superb reggae-ish title song, and Lauryn Hill produced the fabulously funky remake of Stevie Wonder's I Was Made to Love Her. The problem is with the Old Guard: producer David Foster's work is dull, and Dianne Warren and Babyface, who both wrote tracks, have better work on their respective resumes. Still, you've got to give Houston credit for stretching herself on at least part of this disc; the first song, It's Not Right but It's Okay, is one of her best.

ICE CUBE WAR & PEACE VOL. 1 (THE WAR DISC) [rating: 3 musical notes] PREVIOUS ALBUM Lethal Injection, 1993 COPIES SOLD 1.7 million

As a founding member of the rap group N.W.A., Ice Cube can lay claim to being a true O.G., an Original Gangsta. But he has always been too smart, too observant, to fall into the trap of being just a thug-life-living gangsta rapper. He's an actor: he co-starred in Boyz N the Hood, and he's set to start in the action movie Three Kings with George Clooney. And he's a social critic, attacking, in his lyrics, the penal system, politicians and sometimes America in general.

Now he's back with his first solo album in five years, the initial installment of a two parter. War is loud and aggressive; Ice Cube was recently featured on the hard-rock Family Values tour, and he knows how to make noise. He also knows how to tell a story: Ghetto Vet is a cold-eyed look at the life of a wheelchair-bound victim of gunfire. A number of songs here are cartoony and over the top, but they are mostly redeemed by pulsating numbers like Pushin' Weight.

Bryan Turner, head of Priority Records, got the buzz going on War by shipping copies of the song Ghetto Vet to hundreds of nightclub deejays. Says Turner: "Cube's got his own fan base. Alanis [Morrisette] and Garth have nothing to do with what we sell."

JEWEL SPIRIT [rating: 3 1/2 musical notes] PREVIOUS ALBUM Pieces of You, 1995 COPIES SOLD 6.2 million

Jewel's debut album was, truth be told, a little wan, a little precious, a little slight. It was enjoyable in large part because it came to you palms open, wide-eyed, innocent. Jewel's energy, her fire, her true worth came out during her live shows. Her performances on the traveling Lilith Fair showcased her talents and established her as a genuine phenomenon.

After the success of her first album, after Lilith, after her book of poetry became a best seller, Jewel's new release had a lot to live up to. She went through two producers, scrapped an album that was 70% done and started fresh.

It now looks as if she knew what she was doing. On Spirit, Jewel is once again firmly rooted in pop-folk, but her vocals are richer, and her songwriting is sharper. "I wasn't trying to be contrary or go against type," says Jewel. "I just wanted to be emotionally evocative." On Deep Water she sings with new authority; on Enter from the East she is tender but never weak. There's only one bad song on this CD: Fat Boy, a song about, you guessed it, a fat boy. "Oh fragile flame," Jewel sings, "when no one feels the same." Aieee! The song is a chilling indication of how wrong the rest of this terrific CD could have gone.

Val Azzoli, co-chairman of her label, Atlantic, says he is "not into the SoundScan game" and isn't worrying about the November CD glut. Besides, publicity-wise, Jewel is well positioned: next spring she'll co-star in her first movie, Ride with the Devil. As long as she resists the urge to make a video for Fat Boy, she seems headed for a long, successful run.

METHOD MAN TICAL 2000: JUDGEMENT DAY [rating: 2 musical notes] PREVIOUS ALBUM Tical, 1994 COPIES SOLD 1.3 million

Sometimes it seems as if every other week there's a new album by a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. How many members are there anyway? Ten? Fifty? This week it's Method Man's turn. His new CD sports an impressive title: Judgement Day. But it has already been trumped in sci-fi wit by the name of rapper Busta Rhymes' forthcoming CD, Extinction Level Event.

Like its title, Method Man's CD is inventive and sometimes involving, but it could use a little more cleverness, a little more style. Method Man's rapping flows well, but his delivery lacks force and his lyrics lack focus. The beats for his songs are straight ahead and rarely take unexpected turns. And the practice of including answering-machine messages from famous people on one's album became a hip-hop cliche soon after the Fugees' Pras did it, and did it well, earlier this year. This album does have moments--the piano tickles on Spazzola, guest singer D'Angelo's soulful vocals on Break Ups to Make Ups--but the moments are fleeting. If you want a really good album that features Method Man, check out the excellent Belly sound track (he's on one cut). If you want a really good solo album by a Wu-Tang Clan member, check out RZA's Bobby Digital in Stereo, due out next week.

Still, Def Jam is going all out to promote Judgement Day. The first video for the album features fiery, elaborate special effects, was shot in France and cost $430,000. "That's as much as we've ever spent on a video," says Def Jam director of marketing Chonita Floyd, "except maybe on LL Cool J."

MARIAH CAREY #1'S [rating: 3 musical notes] PREVIOUS ALBUM Butterfly, 1997 COPIES SOLD 3.2 million

Mariah Carey hasn't matured gracefully, and that has turned out to be one of her most appealing traits. In the past couple of years the now 28-year-old singer has got a divorce, made videos in increasingly revealing outfits and had an on-and-off romance with baseball star Derek Jeter. She has also started to work with performers who have a hip-hop edge, like Puffy Combs and Jermaine Dupri. We like Mariah this way.

Her new album is not a traditional greatest-hits collection, something she makes clear in the liner notes. THIS IS NOT A GREATEST HITS ALBUM! she writes. "I haven't been recording long enough for all that." Instead this career retrospective focuses on her chart toppers, including such familiar ditties as Hero. As Carey acknowledges, some of her best songs were album tracks and not No. 1 singles, so such standout numbers as her seductive Melt Away aren't included here. Too bad. #1's does feature a smattering of new songs, which are mostly pleasant.

To promote #1's, Carey will be on MTV live on Nov. 16, as part of a series on this week's new CDs. But we're looking forward to her future albums. She has proved she can hit the heights; it would be nice to hear her explore the depths, to reach down and move us, as Marvin did, as Aretha still does. #1's shows she has the talent for it, if she dares.