Holiday Gift Guide : Calendar’s little helpers offer suggestions in pop, jazz, holiday, family and classical music, plus videos, computer games and books. (Good news: They’re easy to wrap.) : POP MUSIC

Calendar’s pop staff surveyed 40 of the nation’s most popular or critically acclaimed albums:

* * * AC/DC, “Ballbreaker,” Elektra. Bristles with the familiar mixture of bump ‘n’ grind rhythms, spry and chunky guitars and snarling vocals. Like the Ramones, AC/DC can afford to embrace redundancy.

* * * OZZY OSBOURNE, “Ozzmosis,” Epic. Osbourne’s best work hinges on epic melodies as much as hard-rock grit, and here guitarist Zakk Wylde’s beefy flash and Osbourne’s telltale vocal wail mesh around a bevy of hooks.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (f a ir), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).