American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken still needs a hair stylist and better wardrobe, but his silvern vocals are handsomely rewarding on this holiday television special. For reasons never quite explained, the unusual production actually deconstructs the illusion of a seamless TV show by showing cast and crew buzzing about between songs. But this gimmick is easily overlooked whenever Aiken breaks into one of his clear-as-a-bell renditions of a Yuletide classic. Highlights include "Christmas Waltz," with particularly thoughtful lyrics; the touching "Merry Christmas with Love"; and a sassy "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," the last shared with Barry Manilow and Yolanda Adams. Showman Manilow delivers a pleasant medley, and Adams is strong on her pop-gospel turn, "O Holy Night." A cute scene features all the performers talking about unusual gifts, and the finale finds Aiken and friends bringing down the house with "Because It's Christmas (For All the Children." --Tom Keogh

Players who love the Flubberesque exaggerated leaping of arcade basketball games, and also those who want to run serious simulation games for fun, should be pleased with NBA Courtside 2. A fairly complete arcade mode exists, with super dunks from just inside the three-point arc, smokin' passes for players with hot hands, and 5-, 10-, and 15-point hotspots for shooting big numbers. The sonic boom dunk actually causes the opposing team to fall down onto the parquet floor.

While many novice gamers will enjoy the high-flying, mad-dunking action of the arcade mode, the heart of this game is a serious basketball simulation. With excellent controls, impressive artificial intelligence, and easy play-calling for cuts to the basket, this game should sit well with purists who prefer their mix of coaching and playing in equal doses. A deep create-a-player mode is also available for nurturing an NBA star-in-the-making and powering up his abilities as he performs well over a season. The moves of Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant were motion-captured for the movement of the players in this game, so expect fluid athletic motion. --Jeff Young

Pros:

• Exciting arcade mode
• Well-designed control scheme
• Realistic matchups between players

Cons:

• Graphics could be better
• Multiplayer mode is a bit complicated with offscreen players

Big news on the Harry Potter musical front: After scoring the first three installments in the series, John Williams has been replaced by Patrick Doyle. Still, Williams never feels far away. His main theme pops up here and there, and a track like "Voldemort," which eloquently illustrates the soul of a blacker-than-black wizard with thunderous cymbal crashes, shrieking horns, tumultuous strings, and a stately finish, firmly belongs in the Williams mode. Overall, Doyle acquits himself well. He can do light when needed ("The Quidditch World Cup," which starts out like some kind of jig), but mostly he's required to be ominous ("The Quidditch World Cup," which ends in martial war chants). Among the highlights are the aforementioned "Voldemort," but also the frantic, overpowering "The Dark Mark." Note that the CD concludes on a jarringly different note with three songs by the Weird Sisters, the group that performs at Hogwarts' Yule Ball. Led by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, the ad hoc band also includes members of Radiohead and Cocker's side project Relaxed Muscle. "Do the Hippogriff" is a fast-paced rocker that somehow comes across like a grungy hybrid of Billy Idol's "White Wedding" and "Dancing with Myself." The other two songs--"This Is the Night" and "Magic Works"--are less obvious, and much better. Still, the contrast between these tracks and the instrumental score that precedes them may not be to everybody's taste. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

You needn't see the film of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to appreciate the wonder, magic, and fearful chills of J.K. Rowling's phenomenal bestseller in John Williams's outstanding score. Williams typically avoids the source material for the films he scores, but he reportedly derived great pleasure and inspiration from Rowling's first Harry Potter adventure, and created a perfect motif (fully expressed in "Hedwig's Theme") to dominate his score. It's first heard as a dreamy celesta waltz and embellished through myriad incarnations and moods, often with a sinister edge befitting the darker tones of Chris Columbus's direction. Evident are fantastical allusions to Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky (among others), and Williams's epic track is "Quidditch Match," a breathtaking frenzy to accompany the film's dazzling highlight. And while Williams occasionally flirts with self-plagiarism (with inevitable variants of his Hook and Star Wars themes), this is nevertheless a richly regal score that brilliantly evokes the mystery and magic of Harry Potter's world. --Jeff Shannon

American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken still needs a hair stylist and better wardrobe, but his silvern vocals are handsomely rewarding on this holiday television special. For reasons never quite explained, the unusual production actually deconstructs the illusion of a seamless TV show by showing cast and crew buzzing about between songs. But this gimmick is easily overlooked whenever Aiken breaks into one of his clear-as-a-bell renditions of a Yuletide classic. Highlights include "Christmas Waltz," with particularly thoughtful lyrics; the touching "Merry Christmas with Love"; and a sassy "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," the last shared with Barry Manilow and Yolanda Adams. Showman Manilow delivers a pleasant medley, and Adams is strong on her pop-gospel turn, "O Holy Night." A cute scene features all the performers talking about unusual gifts, and the finale finds Aiken and friends bringing down the house with "Because It's Christmas (For All the Children." --Tom Keogh

Players who love the Flubberesque exaggerated leaping of arcade basketball games, and also those who want to run serious simulation games for fun, should be pleased with NBA Courtside 2. A fairly complete arcade mode exists, with super dunks from just inside the three-point arc, smokin' passes for players with hot hands, and 5-, 10-, and 15-point hotspots for shooting big numbers. The sonic boom dunk actually causes the opposing team to fall down onto the parquet floor.

While many novice gamers will enjoy the high-flying, mad-dunking action of the arcade mode, the heart of this game is a serious basketball simulation. With excellent controls, impressive artificial intelligence, and easy play-calling for cuts to the basket, this game should sit well with purists who prefer their mix of coaching and playing in equal doses. A deep create-a-player mode is also available for nurturing an NBA star-in-the-making and powering up his abilities as he performs well over a season. The moves of Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant were motion-captured for the movement of the players in this game, so expect fluid athletic motion. --Jeff Young

Pros:

• Exciting arcade mode
• Well-designed control scheme
• Realistic matchups between players

Cons:

• Graphics could be better
• Multiplayer mode is a bit complicated with offscreen players

Big news on the Harry Potter musical front: After scoring the first three installments in the series, John Williams has been replaced by Patrick Doyle. Still, Williams never feels far away. His main theme pops up here and there, and a track like "Voldemort," which eloquently illustrates the soul of a blacker-than-black wizard with thunderous cymbal crashes, shrieking horns, tumultuous strings, and a stately finish, firmly belongs in the Williams mode. Overall, Doyle acquits himself well. He can do light when needed ("The Quidditch World Cup," which starts out like some kind of jig), but mostly he's required to be ominous ("The Quidditch World Cup," which ends in martial war chants). Among the highlights are the aforementioned "Voldemort," but also the frantic, overpowering "The Dark Mark." Note that the CD concludes on a jarringly different note with three songs by the Weird Sisters, the group that performs at Hogwarts' Yule Ball. Led by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, the ad hoc band also includes members of Radiohead and Cocker's side project Relaxed Muscle. "Do the Hippogriff" is a fast-paced rocker that somehow comes across like a grungy hybrid of Billy Idol's "White Wedding" and "Dancing with Myself." The other two songs--"This Is the Night" and "Magic Works"--are less obvious, and much better. Still, the contrast between these tracks and the instrumental score that precedes them may not be to everybody's taste. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

You needn't see the film of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to appreciate the wonder, magic, and fearful chills of J.K. Rowling's phenomenal bestseller in John Williams's outstanding score. Williams typically avoids the source material for the films he scores, but he reportedly derived great pleasure and inspiration from Rowling's first Harry Potter adventure, and created a perfect motif (fully expressed in "Hedwig's Theme") to dominate his score. It's first heard as a dreamy celesta waltz and embellished through myriad incarnations and moods, often with a sinister edge befitting the darker tones of Chris Columbus's direction. Evident are fantastical allusions to Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky (among others), and Williams's epic track is "Quidditch Match," a breathtaking frenzy to accompany the film's dazzling highlight. And while Williams occasionally flirts with self-plagiarism (with inevitable variants of his Hook and Star Wars themes), this is nevertheless a richly regal score that brilliantly evokes the mystery and magic of Harry Potter's world. --Jeff Shannon