Elektra’s Legacy Full of Surprises ** VARIOUS ARTISTS “Rubaiyat: Elektra’s 40th Anniversary” <i> Elektra</i>

Good idea: Today’s Elektra artists remake the recordings of yesterday’s Elektra artists to celebrate the illustrious label’s 40th anniversary.

Mediocre record: The 38-track collection is inevitably so sprawling and unfocused that the occasional good cuts seem like random strokes of luck. Whatever Elektra was and is goes undefined, as “Rubaiyat’s” excessiveness neutralizes the company’s identity.

For those who bite, here’s a guide to help get a grip on it:

Hottest commercial formula: the Cure + the Doors . . . Best metal-plating: Faster Pussycat’s “You’re So Vain” . . . Most imaginative transformations: the Gipsy Kings’ Catalonian “Hotel California” . . . Mismatch (singer over song): Ernie Isley doing the Cars’ “Let’s Go” . . . Mismatch (song over singer): Love’s “Seven & Seven Is” by Billy Bragg.

Pleasant surprise (song and singer): Dennis Linde’s “Hello, I Am Your Heart,” sung by Sara Hickman . . . Pleasant surprise (general): Jackson Browne’s singing on the Incredible String Band’s “First Girl I Loved” . . . Perfect matches: They Might Be Giants doing Phil Ochs, 10,000 Maniacs doing Jackson Browne, John Zorn doing the Stooges . . . Worst song: “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.”