In Randy Newman’s “Back on My Feet Again,” a patient in a mental institution dismisses his therapist thus: “I’ve got no time to trifle with trash like you/’Cause I must be ’bout my bidness.” I know just how the guy feels, though I’m always willing to make time for the soul who can appreciate that I’m making an incredible sacrifice on his behalf. So I’d like to thank Kaada for calling his excellent debut album Thank You for Giving Me Your Valuable Time. Hailing from Norway, the 27-year-old Kaada (aka John Erik Kaada) used to be in a band called Cloroform, but is now going the one-name solo route. But that’s just part of Kaada’s schtick: He’s also all hung up on the sound of ’50s and ’60s vocal groups, samples of which he uses to create funky but whimsical songs that remind me of what Moby would sound like if he’d spent his youth sucking up nitrous oxide instead of all that blues and gospel hoo-ha. Accordingly, “Care” is the weirdest doo-wop song this side of Frank Zappa’s “WPLJ,” “Mainframe” is an audacious fusion of the Surfaris’ “Wipe Out” and Kraftwerk, and “Black California” sounds like Sha Na Na on goofballs and Booker T. & the MG’s. Fun stuff, indeed. But Kaada’s big Norwegian heart has been broken just like yours, as the sorrow-laden “Burden” attests—even if it also features some Teutonic siren announcing Götterdämmerung Motown style. Our man also waxes lugubrious on “No You Don’t,” which sounds like Sam Cooke moonlighting as a Volga Boatman, all soulful vox and vaguely Eastern European melodies. The best track here, though, is “Honk,” a manic musical collage like you’ve never heard before. Kaada gives us not only a Moonglows-worthy vocalist singing about how good people are hard to find, frantic drum breaks, feverish horns, and some great secret-agent guitar work, but also a guy who keeps saying, “I am a good person” as if he doesn’t quite believe it. It’s all very surreal in a very nonpretentious way—which, for my money, makes Thank You about as joyous an expenditure of valuable time as I’ve experienced in a while.—Michael Little