POP/ROCK: Paul McCartney, "Kisses on the Bottom" (Hear Music)

McCartney's first standards album breaks the mold of similar discs by a rock performer. Far from a solemn, self-conscious act of reclamation, it is more a jaunty tip of the hat to the pop music of his parents' generation. Every element of the album, produced by Tommy LiPuma, contributes to the feel of a perfectly fit, custom-tailored suit. The rhythm arrangements by Diana Krall, who plays piano on most of the cuts, have a crispy, airy bounce. In addition to members of Krall's band, guest guitarist John Pizzarelli gives the instrument a buoyant ukulele-like sound.

McCartney, whose voice is almost as youthful as in the Beatles' glory days, doesn't explore lyrical subtext. He trusts in the reliable pleasures of catchy pop tunes, of moon, June and spoon. Others might inflect "It's Only a Paper Moon" with sarcasm or deliver "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" as a self-help harangue, but not McCartney. It is all about ease and relaxation in the moment.

A slightly wistful version of Irving Berlin's "Always" sits comfortably beside two winsome McCartney originals, "My Valentine" and "Only Our Hearts." The closest the album comes to darkness is in a moderately slowed-down "Bye Bye Blackbird" and "Get Yourself Another Fool," a minor R&B hit, from 1949, for Charles Brown and later recorded by Sam Cooke.

"Bye Bye Blackbird" is a celebration of chasing away the blues once and for all: no antidepressants needed. Eric Clapton's guitar lends "Get Yourself Another Fool" a blues flavor, but the hue is baby blue, not inky. Frank Loesser's trickily metered arithmetic lesson, "Inchworm," from the movie "Hans Christian Andersen," is aimed at the child inside us all.

More than 40 years have passed since McCartney infuriated the rock counterculture with the exquisite sketches of his first two post-Beatles records, "McCartney" and "Ram." What distinguishes McCartney's music, then and now, is his utter lack of grandiosity. --STEPHEN HOLDEN, NEW YORK TIMES

POP/ROCK: Of Montreal, "Paralytic Stalks" (Polyvinyl)

It's easy to admire Kevin Barnes' unfettered imagination and creativity. But he doesn't always make it easy to love his albums, and "Paralytic Stalks" makes few concessions to accessibility. This time out, Barnes is more interested in concocting a continuous prog-psych suite than in structuring conventional songs. In Of Montreal terms, it's dark and difficult like "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" rather than cheery and fun like "Satanic Panic in the Attic" or "False Priest."

Although his live band is celebrated for its maximalist extravagance, Barnes records mostly alone, this time with a few studio musicians. Almost every song is dense with multitracked vocals, orchestral strings and woodwinds with abrupt twists and leaps and diversions into dissonance. It's an angry album, bitter about the human propensity for violence and spiteful about failed relationships. It's impressive, but it's more often alienating than alluring. --STEVE KLINGE, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER