ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: "Oh my God, I'm so messed up," CSS lead singer Lovefoxxx blurts out on the third lyric of the second album by the Brazilian dance-punk outfit she leads. It wouldn't be worth pointing out as a lyric if it didn't color the entirety of Donkey, which sounds like the soundtrack to a scenester party attended solely by people who went from being penniless bomb-throwers to self-satisfied rulers way too fast, and didn't realize that the indulgences (drinking, drugging, taking cell phone self-portraits, self-promoting) they'd become addicted to in the process made them everything they'd once poked fun at. The songs sound like rejected She Wants Revenge album filler that have been subsequently stuffed with their own filler, and one wonders why such a "fun" band has decided to become so, well, turgid.

There are some moments that break through—"Beautiful Song," in particular, departs enough from the relentlessly grinding 4/4 beat that supplies Donkey's backbone to stand out, and it actually has a bubbling synth part—but it's hard not to feel that Donkey works better as a cautionary tale than as something to press "play" on. Take heed, CSS fans: This is what happens when you get so stuck in "party" mode, with its flashbulbs and vomit-stained floors and indiscreet bumps and chances to meet Paris Hilton, that you're completely oblivious to how everyone around you is having a positively shit time.

UPDATE: Apparently the leak is one of those "let's make love and loop 30 seconds of each song endlessly" fake-outs, but I stand by this assessment, which was based off a promo CD that I got in the mail yesterday. (I have the IM logs to prove it, too.)

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Just in time for it to fall from the top spot on the Hot 100, Usher has put out this remix of his comeback single that features much better collaborators than Young Jeezy—Beyonce and Lil Wayne, to be exact. "Part 2" of "Love In This Club" is slowed-down and a bit more restrained than the Godzilla-storming-the-dancefloor original, and while I don't want to make everyone all giddy by mentioning "Ignition (Remix)," because peccadilloes of its performer aside it is pretty much the shining example of the "theoretical slowed-down remix genre," I will say that "Part 2" musically reminded me of R. Kelly's Murder She Wrote-hailing banger, even with the raspiness in Lil Wayne's voice reaching Waits-like levels. And for that reason alone, I'm pretty sure that this song is going to blare from every car in the land well into, say, mid-July.

WHERE TO FIND IT: Ali's Blog.

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Purportedly the first single from Beyonce's next album, which is set to drop later this year, "Beautiful Nitemare" sounds like a departure from the ex-Destiny's Child frontwoman's earlier work because it sounds so, well, restrained. Gone are the oddball melodies and key-defying runs that made Beyonce's older material stick out even more on the radio; in their place is a 100% straightforward dance-pop tune that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Blackout, or maybe even on Judy Torres' Sunday night freestyle show. (Well, B's vocals are definitely a lot better trained than those of your average Cover Girl, but that's 2008 for you.) Of course, this is a rough demo (complete with annoying loop), so maybe she'll figure out a way to make it more irresistibly grating during the rest of the production process.

WHERE TO FIND IT: PopCrunch.

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: About a month ahead of release date, the second Gnarls Barkley disc hit the Internet, albeit with mislabeled tracks (at least, the version I saw). Nonetheless, you have to feel for Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse a bit, living under the spectre of "Crazy," one of the most memorable genre-busting singles in decades Sure, there were other singles from St. Elsewhere, but it's difficult to listen to The Odd Couple without waiting for a perfect pop moment that never arrives. The disc is fine and throughly listenable, and Cee-Lo will likely always be one of pop music's most interesting vocalists, but there's not too much to hang your hat on. Danger Mouse's production is more atmospheric than engaging at times, with lush keyboards floating in the distance and breakbeats that wouldn't have been out of place on a Roni Size disc, and a number of tracks (like "Whatever") seem to nod towards a skewed view of '60s pop that never seems to catch on. But overall, there's not much to rave or complain about; The Odd Couple is pretty good, but it will probably disappear somewhere into the back of my mind until its tracks start re-appearing in every commercial I see.

THE BEST TRACK: The temptation is there to say "Run," but let's go with "A Little Better," which sounds a little like a lost "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone"-era Temptations outtake, even in lyrical content. Mostly, it made me happy to hear Cee-Lo shout out "the friendly ghost," and it's nice to hear Casper get his props.

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: The first track to leak from Jay-Z's forthcoming concept album opens with the mogul referring to himself as "Gray-Hova"; the boasting Jay and big beats of Kingdom Come are replaced by Jay rapping about cooking up coke through a jaw-wired-shut flow and a slow-build beat that's pushed along by a tense, dirty organ line (and a Pharrell-sung hook that's nicked from En Vogue's fantastic "Hold On"). Also, isn't American Gangster—the movie that Jay's next album is based on—set in the '70s? What's with the Ollie North name-drop?
WHERE TO FIND IT: Nah Right, which has the track in radio rip and CD-quality form.

[Photo: Getty Images]