Although the chilling works of Edgar Allan Poe are best paired with Halloween, this two-disc set arrives in stores Tuesday, just in time to terrify the in-laws during the holidays. Poe's ghastly tales are sometimes mired in their own verbosity, but when read by some of music and film's dramatic voices, these narratives come to life.

The set opens with Marianne Faithfull's rasp on the poem "Alone," followed by Poe's famous "The Raven," delivered by silver-tongued actor Christopher Walken. Iggy Pop steals the scene in his narration of "The Tell-Tale Heart." His voice is well suited to the ever-increasing lunacy of the piece, and his translation of suspense is dead on. Likewise, performance artist Diamanda Galas' hag tones make "The Black Cat," with its murderous felines, the clear centerpiece of the collection.

The second disc includes Poe's transcendant "Ulallune" spoken in the late Jeff Buckley's vulnerable voice, backed with spaghetti western guitar. Dr. John's treatment of the doomed romance in "Berenice" is bluesy and comparitively lighthearted. Faithfull returns for a Poe favorite, the oceanic "Annabelle Lee," before actor Gabriel Byrne's elegant brogue invokes the horror of "The Masque of Red Death."

The only missteps here are the few Poe works sung by Ed Sanders and Deborah Harry -- they're embarrassingly bad, with poor arrangements and recording quality. However, the bulk of "Rabies" is brilliantly executed, full of the wraiths and terrors which make Poe's work so immortal.

-- Beth Winegarner

This article was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle.