‘HEY HEY MY MY YO YO’

‘HEY HEY MY MY YO YO’

Junior Senior (Rykodisc)

Grade: A

Lucky Europeans and Japanese have been grooving to Junior Senior’s second album for the past two years, and now that the requisite record-label politics have been settled, stateside fans can finally do likewise.

This is no small gift, considering the time and energy the Danish duo puts into setting off cranial pleasure sensors.

As with its first album, the group herds its various influences into a single bubblegum stampede, lassoing hip-hop, synth-pop, girl-group and even Beatlesque sounds with equal skill and enthusiasm.

Happy to (but not beyond) the point of ridiculousness, the new songs fit like silly ironic T-shirts, but Junior Senior doesn’t want you to laugh at its break dance beats or nods to Madonna and Michael Jackson. “I know you want to dance/ so come on and take the chance,” the pair sings on “Can I Get Get Get,” and they mean every word. If you don’t shake something, you will hurt their feelings.

That was the gist of their last batch of songs, too, but here, they’ve raised the stakes, inviting members of Le Tigre and the B-52s to sip from the party punchbowl. Whatever the stuff is spiked with, it goes straight to the head.

— Kenneth Partridge, The Hartford Courant

‘DAN COHEN’

Dan Cohen (Weston Boys)

Grade: B

The liner notes on Dan Cohen’s debut disc list the instruments used, and they include a gourd, screwdriver, hambone and candleholder, spoons, the floor and goat toes.

Yes, the vibe’s a bit loose on “Dan Cohen,” which is part of the record’s charm. It also helps that former English major Cohen is an ingratiating singer, a nifty picker and a talented songwriter with a knack for catchy melodies and clever lyrics .

Cohen was born in New Orleans, lives in Nashville and draws on musical elements from both cities. He plays horn-driven funk, jazzy pop, greasy soul, three instrumentals and a lullaby while addressing such topics as faith, addiction and trucking. The extensive list of instruments might suggest anything goes, but Cohen actually exercises great economy, delivering his love-struck message on “Marie” in only 12 words. Pretty good for an English major.

— Steven Wine, Associated Press

‘THE HAIR THE TV

THE BABY & THE BAND’

Imperial Teen (Merge)

Grade: A-

Fizzy odd pop done with righteous infectious frenzy is Imperial Teen’s metier. Even if its members aren’t exactly teens (the CD’s title refers to what the seasoned quartet has been up to since its last record), they’re sounding like overgrown kids, imperial ones at that. Yet they never extend themselves to trend or fancy. The results — in line with the band’s first smash, “Yoo-Hoo” — are party-ballers like “Sweet Potato” and “Shim Sham,” with girl/boy harmonies and dippy rhythmic kicks.

But cut into “Shim’s” sugary mood is this ruminative lyric: “Now and then seems like a different scene.” They’re not fooling themselves. Still, there’s nothing tarnished or tired about the ringing “Room With a View” or the buzzing “One Two.” Imperial Teen isn’t as dynamic as Neil Young. But no rust this good ever sleeps.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘ANDORRA’

Caribou (Merge)

Grade: A

With each release, Dan Snaith, the man behind Caribou, becomes both more accessible and more complex, as if running away from pop has only gotten him closer to the other end of its spectrum. There were pronounced electronics on his jagged glitch-hop debut, “Start Breaking My Heart,” while its follow-up, “Up in Flames,” carried these flourishes into something bigger and warmer. (”Start Breaking My Heart” and “Up in Flames” were released under the name Manitoba and later reissued as by Caribou.) By the time of 2005’s “The Milk of Human Kindness,” Snaith was sharing chunky hip-hop beats with atmospheric tinkering and nods to Kraut rock.

On “Andorra,” Snaith finally seems to get the whole songwriter thing. His gift for aching melody has always been present, but here it flows into great choruses and among tight structures, surfacing above a cloud of layered, ringing guitars, echoing vocals, wall-to-wall percussion, flute, glockenspiel — all supplied by Snaith. It’s trippy, all right, but not to the point of losing anyone; “After Hours” has departures that push the whole song in new directions, rather than pull it apart into fragments. By the time of “Sundialing,” it’s clear “Andorra” is no joke: Snaith is capable of keeping his attention — and craft — focused for an entire sitting. Two songs later, “Niobe” closes the album. It’s a nine-minute, synthesizer-driven symphony of anticipation and paranoia that reminds us that Snaith’s talent lies in delaying pleasure as much as it does in delivering it.

— Michael Pollock, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘THE STORM’

Travis Tritt (Category 5)

Grade: C

You can’t get “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson to shut up about the time he played in Journey, as if this makes him an expert on “Idol’s” rock theme nights. It’s a safe bet he’ll lord his country music cred over Simon next season, given his latest eye-opening collaboration: He’s co-produced country vet Travis Tritt’s new CD.

Talk about your odd combinations. Jackson might want to keep this one on the down low. “The Storm,” with two contributions from soulless song hack Diane Warren, two from ’80s pop singer Richard Marx and one co-written with Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, has the music-by-committee sound of one of those blustery, pseudo-R&B albums Michael Bolton pumped out with regularity to eager housewives in the early ‘90s.

Unlike Bolton, Tritt dips into his soul register with ease. By moving Tritt far from his country base, Jackson ably pushes the singer into delivering a passable Ray Charles pastiche on songs like “Rub Off on Me.” But Jackson’s production is otherwise merely competent and unimaginative.

— Howard Cohen, Miami Herald

‘NEVER SAY DIE’

Waylon Jennings and the Waymore Blues Band

(Columbia/Legacy)

Grade: A

When Waylon Jennings delivered the Nashville performance of January 2000 that is captured here, he was in failing health and forced to play sitting down. That doesn’t mean the country legend, who would die two years later, was fading away. “I can still kick a** — you just got to bring them up here,” he jokes.

And boy does he ever — kick tail, that is. This two-CD-plus-DVD set expands on a previous single-disc release and features the entire performance. The years and his ever-gruffer baritone deepen the tenderness and soulfulness of the ballads, but the tone is more often one of joyful rambunctiousness.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer