Album: Mark Ronson

There's a fine line between the covers album and the producer's anthology, one that Mark Ronson tiptoes expertly on Version. Ronson's production specialty in recent years has been to provide a little retro soul to tracks by the likes of Robbie Williams, Lily Allen and Christina Aguilera, scoring his most spectacular success with the neo-Motown arrangements for Amy Winehouse's Back To Black. Here, he performs similar tricks with familiar songs originally by artists such as Britney Spears, Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and The Smiths. The Smiths' "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard this One Before", for instance, is given a frantic R&B groove, sweeping strings, and a slick segue into a coda of "You Keep Me Hangin' On"; Coldplay's "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" is likewise given an injection of raw soul power to transform it into something like a Bar-Kays instrumental rave-up. The Jam's "Pretty Green" doesn't fare that well; but a Sly Stone-style staccato clavinet adds an itchy, restless groove to a version of the Kaisers' "Oh My God" fronted with pint-sized panache by Allen.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'God Put a Smile Upon Your Face', 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard this One Before', 'Oh My God'