POP/ROCK: Gotye, "Making Mirrors" (Universal Republic)

Yes, Gotye sounds a whole lot like Sting when he sings the chorus of "Somebody That I Used to Know." That tinge of pop familiarity may have helped make the song an international hit when Gotye's third album, "Making Mirrors," was released last year in Australia, where he lives. Now "Making Mirrors" arrives in the United States.

The album merges catchy, gizmo-loving pop constructions with a stalwartly depressive mindset. Gotye, a Belgian-Australian born Wouter De Backer, is largely a one-man studio band, playing many instruments and building songs around samples from vintage soul, lounge music, soundtracks and exotica.

Gotye worries about humanity destroying the planet through overconsumption in "Eyes Wide Open" and sees an entertainer's life as a fraud in "Smoke and Mirrors." He apologizes for being "wrapped up in myself" in "Giving Me a Chance," while in "Somebody That I Used to Know," after he moans about his ex shutting him out, the ex shows up to remind him about "all the times you screwed me over."

When he does find love, he is desperately needy. The exuberant Motown beat in "I Feel Better" pulls him only partway out of despair; "Save Me" extols the lover who eases his suicidal anxiety. But his snappy pop constructions fight the moping. There's the perky little xylophone line in "Somebody That I Used to Know," the jazzy electric-piano sample that circles through "Smoke and Mirrors" and the galloping beat and floating guitars of "Eyes Wide Open." The album's one wholeheartedly joyful song is "State of the Art," full of gizmos supreme. People may let Gotye down, and vice versa, but the gadgets never do. Gotye performs April 4 at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. --JON PARELES, NEW YORK TIMES

POP/ROCK: Ringo Starr, "Ringo 2012" (Hip-O)

"Ringo 2012" has as much to do with the Ringo of 1948, 1957 and 1973 as it does with the Ringo of today. In the notes, the 71-year-old ex-Beatle states, "I can revisit the past when I want to, but I don't live there," and his trips down Memory Lane, thematically and musically, yield some modestly charming results.

"In Liverpool" finds him reflecting happily on his youth in postwar England in the port city that birthed the Fab Four. He salutes two of his early heroes with a crisp rendition of Buddy Holly's "Think It Over" and a hard-chugging arrangement of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line."

Starr also reacquaints himself with two songs from his past: "Step Lightly" from 1973's "Ringo" album and "Wings" from "Ringo the 4th." You wish he'd have reached out for more contemporary collaborations such as "Samba," a Latin-flavored number he wrote with Van Dyke Parks that allows the world's most famous drummer to flex his rhythmic chops a bit. He also has delivered a sweet love song in "Wonderful," written with Gary Nicholson. --RANDY LEWIS, LOS ANGELES TIMES