Gnarls Barkley, Flo Rida have new CDs

NEW YORK - Gnarls Barkley, “The Odd Couple”
If Gnarls Barkley’s debut, “St. Elsewhere,” was the sound of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Green tinkering around with the creation of their bizarre surf-pop/psychedelic hybrid monster, “The Odd Couple” is the sound of that monster escaping from the lab. It’s also about a thousand times darker. Danger Mouse goes from gospel to pop to spooky, often in the same track, and Green sets a new vocal bar on the desolate, acoustic-flavored nightmare ballad “Who Will Save My Soul.” Zippy first single “Run” and the vaguely romantic rubber ball “Blind Mary” are the only things here that approach the sonic territory of “Crazy,” and there are times when Green’s quavering falsetto gets downright evil. It seems that the more comfortable the principals get with Gnarls Barkley, the more haunted Gnarls Barkley gets. Stronger, too.

Panic at the Disco, “Pretty. Odd”
Panic at the Disco’s sophomore set has a lot more cheery moments and fewer busy elements than its smash debut, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” and, much like the exclamation point now absent from the band’s name, the superfluous noise is hardly missed. In a Beatles nod, the album begins with the crowd-noise-enhanced intro “We Were Starving” before “Nine in the Afternoon” bursts with upbeat power chords and a singalong chorus. There’s plenty of twee to go around, including tracks like “That Green Gentleman,” “Behind the Sea” and ballad “Northern Downpour” — surprising, considering the band’s previous penchant for darkness on “Fever.” 15 tracks of welcomed live drum sounds, symphonies and stacked harmonies.

Flo Rida, “Mail on Sunday”
In 50 years, it’ll be a curious thing that the best-selling digital single of all time once belonged to Flo Rida and that the song, “Low,” powered the phones of hip-hop heads and sorority girls for months and months. “Low” is a well-deserved monster, and Flo Rida’s relatively long-in-coming debut album sports precisely all the ingredients required of a rapper these days: production that sounds like money, exuberant materialism, several verses by Lil’ Wayne and a singular desire to keep people’s attention for very brief periods of time. Flo Rida’s flow is an engaging/ringy-dingy/he-sounds-like-Nelly thing. But his hooks can be rock-solid, and his interest in gleaming synthesizerism (opener “American Superstar” comes into “Tubular Bells” territory, really) helps set him off from the legions of rappers clawing over one another to break out of the South.

Lionel Loueke, “Karibu”
The Blue Note debut of Benin-born guitarist/vocalist Lionel Loueke arrives as an ear-opening delight after his five-year span of creative bloom. Not only did Loueke record two fine CDs for indie ObliqSound (one as a member of the collective Gilfema), but he was also enlisted to perform and record with such top-tier jazz artists as Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. All three praised Loueke’s singular style of jagged geometric shapes, shifting time signatures, ebullient African-pop groove and sweet lyricism, which are on full display here. The nine-track journey, which opens with the sunny, syncopated title track and ends with the juju-like “Nonvignon,” marks this year’s first major jazz revelation.

She and Him, “Volume One”
Indie-movie princess meets indie-rock prince in this collaboration between Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, featuring a bland name and even blander album title. Luckily, they’re the most awkward things about this surprisingly rewarding collection of dusky, mesquite-flavored torch songs. She and Him ducks the celeb-novelty thing thanks mostly to Deschanel, who penned nine of the album’s 11 tracks and spends much of it channeling Neko Case in a voice that’s just fine, if occasionally (though endearingly) rough. It’s best heard on the wonderfully brittle “Change Is Hard” and a slow, sexy take on the Miracles’ “You Really Gotta Hold on Me.” And if Ward knows anything, it’s how to work up spare frontier shuffles, all covered in echoing dobro and dust. She and Him feels like a class project Ward and Deschanel get to do because they’re famous, but “Volume One” is a fine use of their privileges.

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