M u s i c R e v i e w Posthumous Album Round-Up Many recording artists don't let a little thing like death slow down thier careers By George Eckart

This has been a big year for posthumous album releases by many great deceased artists. Modern technology has enabled record producers to remaster and revisit past demos, outtakes and other recordings into virtually new albums that sound as if the artist just recorded them today. Here's a round up of this year's releases: Tupac Shakur has been dead since 1997, but that hasn't stopped him from being prolific. Janis Joplin - The Lost Tapes 1/2* A series of previously-unheard Joplin's vocals were found two years ago by record producer Brendan O'Brien. Subsequently, he brought the top alt-metal acts to provide the backup music. Unfortunately, bands such as Linkin Park, System of a Down, Korn, Tool and Mudvayne show little sympathy to the material. Things come to life briefly when Kid Rock raps underneath "Peace O' My Heart 2003," but for the most part Janis' voice gets lost underneath a sea of muddy guitar noise and metallic konking drums. The John Lennon Project- Douglas Ceiling **1/2 A novel idea, this album takes snippets of interviews John Lennon did on the Mike Douglas Show and mixes theme with the lush, headphone-friendly sounds of many top electronica producers. The result is more of a spoken-word release with trippy background music courtesy of artists like Orbital, Thievery Corporation, and The Chemical Brothers. Enjoyable, but mostly inconsequental except for Portishead's "Love In (Ono Mix)" which easily counts as most melodic thing Yoko ever recorded. 2Pac- Special Deliveriez ***1/2 Since Tupac Shakur's untimely death in 1997, six albums have been released --made from his demos and other leftover material. "Special Deliveriez" is based on a recording of a pizza order 2Pac phoned to Little Caesar's weeks before being gunned down. His expert timing and ear for street poetry comes out on such tracks as "Y'all Got Cherry Coke?," "Green Peppers," and "I'll Pay In Cash." The four bonus tracks consist of a second phone call 2Pac made to "add some more breadsticks to that bitch." Jimi Hendrix - Are You Bold As Ladyland? *1/2 The late guitar genius' legacy gets an interesting treatment on this experimental album made by a group of musicians/computer scientists at M.I.T. Jimi Hendrix's entire body of work was fed into an super computer -- the JHIMI (Jimi Hendrix Intelligent Music Iterator)-- along with other data about Hendrix. The results are 8 computer-generated songs that combine elements from all of his recordings. Clearly, the technology is clumsy at best--evidenced by such tracks as: "Foxey Depression," "Hey Watchtower," and "The Wind Cries Crosstown Traffic." Frank Sinatra vs. Notorious BIG - Fly Me To The Hood **** This two for one album is the result of some of the Chairman's finest songs mixed together with Biggie's best tracks. The results are startling. Suprisingly, Sinatra's velvet-smooth crooning blends perfectly with the street-smart raps of Biggie. No stranger to remixing, producer Puff Daddy gives the tracks a ready-for-radio sheen. He blends the two artists' best known hits (like "Pennies From Heaven" with "Mo Money Mo Problems," "Me and My Bitch" with "Night and Day," and "Somebody's Gotta Die" with "My Way") as if each artist knew that someday their work would be combined together.