Bruno Mars lobs a grenade with his latest single, “Locked Out of Heaven,” the jittery title track from an album due in December. (Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)
Mom might not know best on Big Boi’s “Mama Told Me.” (Craig Bromley/Getty Images)
Barbra Streisand turns in a delightful “Didn’t We,” but her new album has nothing fresh. (Wireimage)
Album of the Week
Barbra Streisand
“Release Me”
★★
BARBRA’S newest isn’t exactly new — these 11 outtakes from official albums date all the way back to 1963. Not surprisingly, the best material here was recorded during Streisand’s first decade: The delicate “Didn’t We” is from 1970, “Willow Weep for Me” from 1967. The closer to the present the recordings originate, though — such as “Home,” from the musical “The Wiz,” and the pairing “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?/Heather on the Hill,” both from an unissued sequel to 1987’s “The Broadway Album”— the more Disney-maudlin everything becomes. (Streisand plays Barclays Center on Thursday and Saturday.)
Downloads of the Week
Adele
“厂办测蹿补濒濒”
★★ 1/2
OF course Adele was going to do a Bond song. Recorded with a 77-piece orchestra, it’s a deliberate throwback to Shirley Bassey’s overdramatic mid-’60s themes; thankfully, Adele is a more restrained singer. You wouldn’t want a whole album of it, but the echo on her voice is rather fetching.
Brad Paisley
“Southern Comfort Zone”
★★★ 1/2
ON this early volley from an album due in April, country’s most likable star urges his fellow Southern-dwellers to travel more, to “know what it’s like to talk and have nobody understand.” A little self-congratulatory in places, but Paisley’s warmth and the easy tune make up for it.
A.C. Newman
“Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns”
★★★ 1/2
BOTH alone and with the New Pornographers, Vancouver-born indie singer-songwriter Newman’s tunes are sweet but pack a bite, like a salted caramel. This one, from his expansive third solo album, “Shut Down the Streets,” is particularly grabby, even if the lyrics are opaque. (Newman plays Bowery Ballroom Oct. 22.)
Ellie Goulding
“Anything Could Happen”
★★★
A commercial version of the laptop-driven dance-pop of the bands Purity Ring and Grimes: Why not? Shamelessness is a big part of the appeal of this song from “Halcyon” — its big climax comes when Goulding’s parched shout breaks through the big synths. (Goulding will play Santos Party House on Thursday.)
Big Boi feat. Kelly Rowland
“Mama Told Me”
★★ 1/2
THIS advance from the OutKast rapper’s mid-November solo album, “Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors,” is frisky like vintage Prince, both musically (the beat nods to his “Automatic,” from the “1999” album) and lyrically, with Rowland as fluffy as Apollonia herself. That goes for the weightlessly pleasant song, too.
Bruno Mars
“Locked Out of Heaven”
★★
YOU thought Gotye sounded like Sting? The title track from Bruno Mars’ next album, due in December, sounds just like a reject from the Police’s “Outlandos d’Amour.” The clipped guitar, taut beat and Mars’ jittery yelp aren’t great, but they’re preferable to another round of “Just the Way You Are”-style glop.
The Script feat. will.i.am
“Hall of Fame”
★
THIS very sincere, very dippy Irish rock trio’s single from “#3” is not improved with a fourth member. In fact, will.i.am neither adds to nor subtracts from a nauseating would-be sports anthem that deserves to be relegated to a Sunday morning bicycle-race montage. (The Script will play Radio City Music Hall tonight.)