Among the off-the-beaten-path ideas are biographies of Keith Richards, Frank Sinatra, Rosanne Cash and Patti Smith, a Michael Jackson video collection, Coachella and Warped Tour-related gifts, and the ultimate Miles Davis collection.

Keith Richards, "Life" (Little, Brown, $29.99)
James Kaplan, "Frank: The Voice" (Doubleday, $35)
Kristin Hersh, "Rat Girl" (Penguin, $15)
Rosanne Cash, "Composed" (Viking Adult, $26.95)
Patti Smith, "Just Kids" (Ecco, $27)

It used to be easier to pick out music for your tune-obsessed relatives. There were far fewer releases than there are now, and unless it was a hot album, chances are good that with enough research one could find sounds desired yet unpurchased. No more. With the instant gratification of iTunes, Amazon and miscellaneous pirate portals, a music freak who wants a particular set of tunes probably already has it, and if not, doesn't want it.

Still, that leaves a ton of music-centric gift options that aren't run-of-the-mill compact discs. Below is a list of ideas for the melodically inclined.

In a year full of excellent music books, artists' biographies and memoirs stand out, and Keith Richards' "Life"

is a high point. Between dishing dirt and co-dependently bashing Mick, the rock god's doorstop reminds us that a passionate (and borderline nerdy) love of jamming is what makes the rock-and-roll lifestyle meaningful. The equally bulky "Frank: The Voice," by James Kaplan, reveals something similar about singing: This hard-boiled, heavily detailed biography reveals that Sinatra's delicate pursuit of vocal refinement was the practice that kept him sane during the rocky first half of his titanic career.

"Rat Girl" by Kristin Hersh, leader of the groundbreaking Throwing Muses, expands upon her teen diaries to confront one cataclysmic year: At 18, Hersh recorded the band's first album, discovered she suffered from bipolar disorder and had a baby. "Composed," by Rosanne Cash, takes a longer view, gracefully exploring how this song-fed daughter of country music royalty learned to take, and give, her own nourishment. And the National Book Award-winning "Just Kids" by Patti Smith, the punk priestess' account of her early romance with New York and with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe, describes the way artists give birth to themselves with more love and courage than any book I can remember. — Ann Powers

"Michael Jackson's Vision" DVD box set (Epic, $39.98)

Fans wary of the controversial posthumous album hitting stores can pick up "Michael Jackson's Vision," a DVD box set featuring nearly five hours of remastered Jackson videos and including a 60-page hard-bound book with behind-the-scenes photos. "Vision" is heavy on Jackson's legendary short films, including Martin Scorsese's full 18-minute cut of "Bad" and the groundbreaking short for "Thriller." Ten videos, including the previously unreleased "One More Chance," make their DVD debut here, resulting in quite a comprehensive gift for any MJ fanatic.

— Gerrick D. Kennedy

If you want to give the gift of music, these impressive new deluxe packages include some of the greatest sounds around. 

Syl Johnson “Complete Mythology” (Numero Group) $75

A four-CD, six-LP set, this collection spans more than a decade of Johnson's career, showcasing the work of the Mississippi-born artist throughout and just beyond the ‘60s. A criminally unheralded stylist of urban funk and Southern soul, this detailed and annotated set provides a snapshot of Johnson's expansiveness, and a voice — one that can wail with heartache just as easily as it can rip up the floorboards — that is long overdue for rediscovery. (Todd Martens)

Feist “Look at What the Light Did Now” (Interscope) $26.98

Bruce Springsteen's “The Promise” may be stealing all the thunder on the archival-set road, but this film about the process of making and touring the Grammy-nominated album “The Reminder” is, in a quieter way, an equally powerful statement about art and community. Leslie Feist graciously shares space with her team — a puppeteer, a photographer, her producer Chilly Gonzales — to show how even solo albums are anything but. The DVD comes with a bonus CD of songs from the film. (Ann Powers)

“Matador at 21” Various Artists, (Matador Records) $35

Though this set showcases just one label, this economically priced six-CD collection provides a rather thorough lesson in American underground rock for the last two decades. Be it the slacker sarcasm of Pavement, the pop experiments of Yo La Tengo or the earnestly left-of-center folk-pop of Cat Power, Matador, as well as Sub Pop in Seattle and Touch & Go in Chicago, set the stage for the Shins, the Arcade Fires and the Interpols to come. (TM)

From Bob Dylan tackling 'Here Comes Santa Claus' to the "Avenue Q' puppets doing 'Ave Maria,' there's something for everyone.

It's become an annual ritual -- the flooding of the music market with dozens, if not hundreds, of holiday-themed titles, and this year is no exception. Plenty of artists are releasing festive recordings, and labels are hoping all that good cheer will translate to some sales uplift.

In the mix are offerings from a crystalline-voiced would-be American Idol and from a sandpaper-throated bona fide American icon. Sting does some musical time traveling and one adventurous experimentalist beams the spirit of the season into the vastness of deep space.

What follows is a look at some of the most interesting collections available right now:

David Archuleta, "Christmas From the Heart" (19/Jive): America's favorite elfin pop idol, Archie sounds every bit as spot-on key and invested with holiday reverence and good cheer as humanly possible -- and nearly as predictable. But given that "American Idol" is about meeting popular expectations rather than exceeding (much less defying) them, it's somehow comforting that within the familiar arrangements and production touches are a few intriguing touches such as the musical quotations of Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" into his version of "Angels We Have Heard on High."  * * 1/2 (Two and a half stars)


Andrea Bocelli, "My Christmas" (Decca). There's always an audience for yuletide music sung in a romantic tenor voice, and this year, Bocelli's under the tree. He's brought along several vocal partners including Natalie Cole, Mary J. Blige and Reba McEntire -- even the Muppets and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. As usual with operatic singers for whom English is a second language, Bocelli tends to succeed better with carols than with pop tunes.  * * 1/2 (Two and a half stars)