Mark Ronson: Version

In England, where it's been out since April, Mark Ronson's second album largely registers as a novelty record. It features big UK pop stars—Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Kasabian, Robbie Williams—doing karaoke of other people's songs (and sometimes their own) over Ronson's knowingly retro-soul backings. But in the U.S., Winehouse is the only actually famous person on Version, and her celebrity is so recent that she doesn't entirely count. Which may well make it easier for Yanks to hear Version as a piece of music. On those terms, it's a smart valentine to a few different strains of Brit-pop, with occasional missteps, such as patching on tape of Ol' Dirty Bastard chanting "Ooh, nigga, I'm burnin' up" over the Tiggers-sung version of Britney Spears's "Toxic."