American Idol: The Great Holiday Classics, various artists (RCA)

I'm trying harder to be a bit more complete, so that explains why I'm shooting a few ducks in a barrel here. I hate to be a Scrooge, since so many folks love the Idols, but I'm really not disclosing any state secrets by saying this 2003 disc is more about the benjamins than it is about the holiday. Heck, a Christmas album is likely to be the only way any of us will remember five years from now the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Justin Guarini, Ruben Studdard or the rest of the "American Idol Ensemble," as the crew is billed on a couple of cuts here. (UPDATE: Well, Clarkson still is on the hit parade, but I feel justified that the others, and many subsequent Idols, are all waiting in VH1's green room for their turn on the eventual "I Love The Aughts.") "The Great Holiday Classics" is a smart conceit to cover up the fact that writing a few original tunes or putting any more thought into the endeavor might have made them miss their marketing deadlines. As for the performances, there just isn't anything here that's noticeably better than you could have gotten by sticking your fist at random into a pile of CDs at Wal-Mart or Borders. Despite the fact that the Idols are a youth market move for the record company, this is pretty middle of the road, nothing faster than midtempo. It's not that the Idols are untalented; it's just that they're no more special than the thousands of working musicians who play in coffeehouses and bars and release CDs without waiting to see whether they'll make the cut on a flavor-of-the-month TV show that probably wouldn't let them audition anyway.