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Among the recent glut of good-cause charity albums, No Alternative stands out as the best, both for its performances and its cause (proceeds benefit the Red Hot organization in the fight against AIDS). The high points are Soul Asylum's unlikely cover of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing;" outtakes from recent albums by Chicago's Urge Overkill and Smashing Pumpkins; "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence," the major-label debut by Pavement; a surprise hard-rocking Nirvana track, and "Memorial Song," an a capella tribute from punk godmother Patti Smith to the late Robert Mapplethorpe. --Jim DeRogatis