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Cds

Title: Ashlee Simpson "Bittersweet World" $13.98

Grade: C

Basic story: Simpson's third album shows her coming of age. Here, she ditches her staple guitar-driven pop for '80s electro rock. It's a sound that grooves.

What you'll love: She's shameless enough to mimic Gwen Stefani, Toni Basil and Missing Persons, and it pays off in songs with crisp beats and cheerfully obvious lyrics.

What you won't: It couldn't be more calculated, but that doesn't prevent it from being catchy, too.

Title: Whitesnake "Good to be Bad" $17.98

Grade: B

Basic story: Is this love that we're feeling? The band's first studio album in 11 years is — can't believe we're saying this — truly excellent.

What you'll love: Easily, the best track is "Lay Down Your Love," which is remniscent of the band's monster hit "Still of the Night" in 1987. Hey, you gotta go with what works.

What you won't: No music video with Tawny Kitaen.

Title: Asia "Phoenix" $18.98

Grade: B

Basic story: Are these guys still around, too? It was in 1983 that Bjorn Borg retired, Reagan debuted "Star Wars," "The A-Team" was hot and these guys last made an album.

What you'll love: If "Heat of the Moment" had you cranking your cassette player (kids, ask your parents about this reference), "Never Again" will explode out of your iPod.

What you won't: We wish there would've been more anthems like "Never Again." Instead, "Phoenix" turns out one ballad after another. Only "Heroine" is truly banal.

Comic

Title: "Countdown to Final Crisis #1" $2.99

Grade: F

Basic story: Is there a comic fan who actually cares that this series is finally over after publishing every week for a solid year? That's what we thought.

What you'll love: -

What you won't: It's the Da Vinci Code of comics. We dare you to make sense of this mess. Plus, any book that gives Jimmy Olsen superpowers is hard to take seriously. Sorry.

Dvd

Title: "One Missed Call" $29.98

Grade: F

Basic story: "The Ring" meets "Frequency": This dud stars Shannyn Sossamon as a woman who loses two friends and gets her own death message — from her future self.

What you'll love: -

What you won't: This rips off other horror flicks badly, from spooky kids to blurry images at the corner of the screen to the predictable slow turn toward a ringing phone.

Title: "Friday Night Lights: The Second Season" $28.98

Grade: B+

Basic story: Critics call this drama about a small Texas town whose high school football team is at the center of life one of the best shows on TV. Audiences still aren't sold.

What you'll love: The four-disc set has the season's 15episodes, accompanied by deleted scenes and commentary on three shows.

What you won't: -

Movies

Title: "Harold and KumarEscape from Guantanamo Bay" R (strong crude content)

Grade: C

Basic story: Studious Harold (John Cho) and stoner Kumar (Kal Penn), their hunger for burgers satiated, find themselves the victims of racial profiling and the Patriot Act.

What you'll love: The humor is, as expected, raunchy. But Cho and Penn's roles as young Asian Americans — a rarity in film — sets this apart from other slob comedies.

What you won't: -

Title: "Baby Mama" PG-13 (crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference)

Grade: C-

Basic story: Tina Fey is Kate, 37 years old and hearing her biological clock going off. With no willing guys in sight, she contracts with Angie (Amy Poehler) to carry her baby.

What you'll love: -What you won't: This isn't exactly a laugh riot, but when has anything producer Lorne Michaels stuck his name on busted your gut?