This isn’t Hamlet’s Denmark

Junior Senior

“d-d-don’t don’t stop the beat” (Crunchy Frog/Atlantic)

***

The fun-loving style of this Danish duo is kind of campy, but its kinetic, 32-minute dance-pop debut album (in stores Tuesday) avoids kitsch by deftly incorporating a rainbow of sonic colors, including new wave, disco, garage-rock, punk, funk and soul.

Advocates of the everybody-on-the-dance-floor method of feeling good, guitarist-singer Jesper Mortensen (“Junior”) and vocalist Jeppe Laursen (“Senior”) mostly celebrate -- themselves, others, partying, hooking up with that special someone and shaking one’s coconuts, among other things.

The opening “Go Junior, Go Senior” has a B-52’s-like toy funkiness that sets the collection’s retro-futuristic tone. Some tunes deliberately mimic iconic styles to different effect, with Stonesy grit lending a jagged sense of heartbreak to “Boy Meets Girl,” and the handclaps and folky sentiments in the Dylan-esque “Shake Me Baby” playing more tongue-in-cheek.

The music can be as sunny as the Beach Boys, but a subversive, primitive vein runs through everything, even such numbers as the disco-rap unity anthem “Move Your Feet” and the goofy “Rhythm Bandits,” the most cartoonish selection. Borderline silliness proves preferable to too much minimalism, however, as the clanging “Good Girl, Bad Boy” does little while rambling on with less to say than these lighthearted tunes.

-- Natalie Nichols

Quick spins

Various artists

“Bad Boys II” soundtrack (Bad Boy/Universal)

***

There’s no denying that P. Diddy knows how to make hit recordings. Now you can add hit soundtracks to his resume. With such sizzling selections as Jay-Z’s thumping “La-La-La (Excuse Me Again)” and the Notorious B.I.G. and 50 Cent’s energetic “Realest N%@$#!,” the star-studded, chart-topping album delivers a variety of edgy songs. Beyonce, Nelly, Justin Timberlake, Lenny Kravitz and co-executive producer Diddy himself, among others, also appear on this entertaining collection.

-- Soren Baker

Chingy

“Jackpot” (Capitol)

** 1/2

This St. Louis rapper (who appears Saturday at the Beat Summer Jam concert at the Universal Amphitheatre) delivers a number of grade-A party jams on his solid debut album. The irresistible radio and video smash “Right Thurr” and the pimpish “Holidae In” (with Snoop Dogg and Ludacris) are just two of the album’s potential anthems. Thematically, Chingy’s fondness for women and partying dominates the collection.

-- S.B.

Thrice

“The Artist in the Ambulance” (Island)

***

It would be easy to add this O.C. quartet to the “screamo” scrap heap -- if its complex guitar parts and thoughtful lyrics didn’t pop so vibrantly. They may be full of woe, but, unlike other rockers of the more sensitive ilk, Thrice aren’t whiny about it. Passionate and poetic, this major-label debut, especially the single “All That’s Left,” has the goods to appeal to metal heads, thinking-pop punks and those who like their hard-core more heartfelt than harmful.

-- Lina Lecaro

Robert Cray

“Time Will Tell” (Sanctuary)

** 1/2

Two and a half decades into his career, the singer-songwriter-guitarist still hasn’t reached the deep end of the blues pool. There are moments here where he attempts to tap issues closest to his heart, but much of his characteristically tasteful blues and R&B-soaked; rock still feels like Blues Lite. His voice is sounding ever closer to B.B. King’s as the years go by, but time will indeed tell whether he’ll ever rise to King’s ability to communicate soul-deep pain and unbridled joy.

-- R.L.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).