Pitchfork

Mark Ronson-- DJ, producer, Allido Records co-founder, and friend of everyone from Christina Aguilera and Jimmy Fallon to Ghostface Killah and Lily Allen-- has announced that the title of his next pop-culture-cannibalizing full-length will be Version and that it will come out April 16 in the UK.

Allen and the bigger-in-Britain Robbie Williams both appear on Version, as does Allido's Daniel Merriweather, who contributes vocals to a version of the Smiths' "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" that Ronson mashes up with the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On". Explaining the concept for Version in a press release, Ronson said, "With my first album, I had all these people like Mos Def and M.O.P. guesting. This time it's not about that. Despite the big names... the songs here are the guest stars. With Version, I've taken these songs that I love and turned them into Motown/Stax 70s versions."

Ronson will precede the album with the release of the limited edition, double A-side single "Toxic"/"God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" 10" on January 29 via Columbia in the UK, on which he turns in lounge-ready versions of Britney Spears' and Coldplay's tracks. Ronson has made both tracks as well as a subtle glockenspiel-and-trumpet-adding remix of Lily Allen's "Smile"-- that he hopes to include on Version if she lets him-- available on his MySpace.

Ronson foregoes Chris Martin's vocals on his version of "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face", instead getting some pep-rally-ready horns to play the vocal melody on a track that's a little bit surf and a little bit ska. For "Toxic", Ronson replaces Spears' vocals with schmaltzy singing and the late ODB's show-stealing verses, which include to-the-point lines like, "I don't want to go back to the police station./ They're trying to send Dirt on a long vacation," and, "Fuck the pussy 'til it's orange like Ernie and Bert."

We mean no disrespect, but step your Sesame Street game up, Russell. Bert is yellow!