New CDs: Catchy Maroon 5; Chris Brown, trouble magnet; Ian Tyson keeps on; Ali Ryerson's jazz flute

Pop

Maroon 5

Overexposed

Chris Brown

Fortune

Whether punching or being punched, Chris Brown is a magnet for controversy. There's always some scrape Brown is in the middle of, whether it involves a woman (Rihanna) or a rival (Drake).

Luckily, the 23-year-old R&B singer with the elastic baritone is capable of souped-up modern soul far bolder than any headline. With each record since 2009's Graffiti, the charismatic Brown, a onetime prince of pop-hop, has become increasingly dependent on techno-trickery and sleek sequenced beats. The result of such electronically induced revisionism is an AutoTuned erotica of sorts, with the mature Brown as the ultimate RoboRomancer on the Eurocentric likes of "Strip." Motor-driven machismo and steely sexuality aren't all Brown's thinking about. While dance-club life gets its due on the clunky "Bassline" and the slinky "Turn Up the Music," hanging at the strip club and getting "medicated" is the subject of "Till I Die." With military electro-beats behind him and rappers Big Sean and Wiz Khalifa, "Die" races at an up-tempo clip until hitting upon "Said she wanna check the poll / I said OK Sarah Palin." If this is Brown hitting up political controversy, he may have another fight on his hands.

— A.D. Amorosi

Kitty Pryde

Haha I'm Sorry

Dirty Projectors

Swing Lo Magellan

With 2009's Bitte Orca, Dirty Projectors established themselves as one of today's most adventurous and significant indie-rock bands. Helmed by singer-guitarist David Longstreth, the band merged avant-garde conceptual structures, West African-influenced guitar lines, and leaping female harmonies in songs that were as knotty as they were uplifting. It was the Projectors' most accessible album.

Country / Roots

Ian Tyson

Raven Singer

"Get the feel of it, down to the real of it," Ian Tyson sings on "Blueberry Susan," a salute to the first guitarist he ever heard and other musical colleagues who have passed on. At 78, the Canadian troubadour and cattle rancher has been doing just that for a long time, going back to the early '60s, when he was half of the hitmaking folk duo Ian and Sylvia.

Jazz

Ali Ryerson

ConBrio!

It has been a while since the flute entranced my jazz consciousness, but Ali Ryerson reminds me how slinky and sensual her slim ax can be.

The leader seduces from the get-go. She can play sweet — there are some fusion sensibilities here — but she's always got the spiritual heft along with a wild soloist's heart.

Vibraphonist Mike Mainieri — whose Steps Ahead ventures were so excellent — gives a pleasant, dark resonance to the proceedings. Keyboard Pete Levin writes the almost funky title track, conveying good energy throughout, while bassist Mark Egan is a leprechaun of a presence, dispensing low-register wit.

Classical

Iestyn Davies

Arias for Guadagni

Davies, countenor, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen cond.

Another month, another wonderful new recording by a fresh young countertenor, right? Countertenors keep getting better, and so it is with Iestyn Davies, who has been around for a few years but appears now in a dandy showcase disc of arias by Handel, Hasse, Arne, Gluck written for the great castrato Gaetano Guadagni. Rather than emphasizing the musical athleticism that was so popular in the 18th century, this aria collection has greater depth and reflection, the Handel arias being drawn from the composer's later-period English-language oratorios, and concluding with sections of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. The disc ends with an aria that Guadagni wrote for himself showing, once again, that he thought of himself as an artist as much as a technician.

Zac Brown Band, Uncaged; Serj Tanikian, Harakiri; The English Beat, The Complete Beat (Box Set); Rhonda Vincent, Sunday Morning Singin'