* Linda McCartney

WIDE PRAIRIE

(Capitol)

Given the unhappy circumstances, this is as about as bad you'd have to expect. Covering 25 years, it's meant to be Linda's musical legacy and last testament, but mainly it's a reminder of husband Paul's ability to make musical silk purses in his sleep. At its best, Wide Prairie sounds like Wings at their worst: willfully inconsequential, decked out in candy-colored arrangements, mildly annoying. And despite the proficient dressings, it's hard to tell whether the originals are good, because (it must be said) it isn't only that Linda McCartney wasn't a professional singer, she wasn't a very good amateur one either. Songs meant to be defiant -- "I Get Up" and "The Light Comes from Within" -- are merely flat-footed; "Cow" and "The White Coated Man" feed the unkind suspicion that vegetarians are a little ditzy. A few desultory covers -- not that a song like "Sugartime" can actually be made worse -- round out the set. It's an unfortunate curio, asking our indulgence in a manner that gives off the sickly sweet odor of marketed grief.

-- Richard C. Walls