CD Review: MARK RONSON AND THE BUSINESS INTL

Record Collection? More like favor collection. Superstar producer Mark Ronson's chutzpah is almost matched by his long list of friends on his third album. Damon Albarn at least has the self-control to put Lou Reed and Snoop Dogg on separate cuts; Ronson can't resist pairing British grime master Wiley and Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon (or Atlanta rapper Pill with the London Gay Men's Chorus, for that matter). Ronson trades the Daptone horns he used on Amy Winehouse's album for synthesizers and nets occasionally expert results. Q-Tip skillfully rides "Bang Bang Bang"'s killer riff, and Le Bon sounds oddly affecting when he pleads, "I only want to be in your collection" on the skittering title track. But it's D'Angelo — MIA for a decade — and his bizarre but gripping voice alterations over the warped chillwave of "Glass Mountain Trust" that give this album its heft. Sometimes Ronson's pawns do themselves a favor too. — Weiss