The oddballs of the pop world just don’t sound as weird as they used to.

Take the sophomore releases from Gnarls Barkley and Panic! at the Disco, both of which are out today and both of which telegraph the supposed quirkiness of the music right in their titles. “The Odd Couple” (Downtown/Atlantic) is Gnarls Barkley’s follow-up to its unlikely 2006 million-seller debut “St. Elsewhere.” The duo comprises the curve-ball collaboration between the futuristic soul artist Cee-Lo Green (né Thomas Callaway) and multi-instrumentalist-producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton). Together, Messrs. Callaway and Burton owned 2006 with their inescapable single, “Crazy,” as well as with their costumed performances, appearing onstage wearing anything from Wimbledon tennis whites to gladiator gear.

Panic! at the Disco’s wardrobe is equally peacock flamboyant, and its stage show just as much of a three-ring circus. The Las Vegas quartet’s 2005 debut, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” sold even better than “St. Elsewhere,” moving more than 2 million units. Its follow-up, “Pretty. Odd.” (Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen), shirks the group’s exaggerated brand of dance-pop-emo for something easier on the ears. Strangely, these two albums, from such peculiarly distinctive artists, are two of the most mainstream pop albums to bubble out of speakers so far this year.

But that fact shouldn’t be too surprising given Gnarls Barkley’s pedigree. Mr. Callaway, whose career has careened from the pioneering Dirty South hip-hop crew the Goodie Mob to his own paisley-florid solo albums, is as much a multifaceted pop threat as Prince, with one of the few voices around capable of reaching as broad and deep as that of Minneapolis’s favorite son. Mr. Burton first appeared on pop’s radar screen with 2004’s “The Grey Album,” his celebrated mash-up of Jay-Z’s vocals from the 2003 “The Black Album” and the Beatles’ music from their 1968 self-titled record (aka the “White Album”). That little bit of unauthorized remixing might have been a brilliant stroke of avant-garde copyright infringement, but aesthetically it found an inspired common space for two of pop’s most bankable acts. “St. Elsewhere” was equally conservative, pairing dance-friendly, hook-rich mixes of retro and contemporary beats with Mr. Callaway’s supple, expressive vocals.

The recipe earned Gnarls two 2007 Grammy awards, and on “The Odd Couple,” the duo doesn’t tinker much with the formula. The album also lacks a single as instantly infectious as “Crazy,” but that actually works in its favor. Its 13 tracks don’t sound like the filler surrounding one gloriously popular song, even if Messrs. Callaway and Burton haven’t lost their gift for soulful R&B ear candy.

From the gently rustling bass and percussion of opener “Charity Case” through the bluesy down-tempo “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,” and on to the stark, introspective bass line of “No Time Soon,” “The Odd Couple” uncovers a creative duo not fixing what isn’t broken.

Mr. Burton is smart enough not to crowd the album with a dense production, with most songs featuring a few elements ingeniously stitched together to suggest a melody. The adrenaline coursing through lead single “Run” is powered by a gospel-worthy vocal track atop a skittish backing beat. The slinky “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” is slow and sensuous enough to sound like Portishead tackling a 1950s jazz standard. The song also sounds a little too much like “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?,” from Moby’s landmark 1999 album, “Play.” And in a way, what Mr. Burton does in Gnarls Barkley isn’t that different from what Moby pioneered with “Play” — namely bending his technical production gifts and ear for sampling into utterly accessible pop music. Like “Play,” both “St. Elsewhere” and “The Odd Couple” are as mainstream-safe as “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Gnarls Barkley’s secret weapon is Mr. Callaway’s mesmerizing voice. He resides mostly in the upper registers of the male range and favors cadences and deliveries that lend almost every song the feeling of a church sermon. That he sings about some very dark human places adds curious wrinkles to Gnarls Barkley’s catchy pop. He speaks from the point of view of a possible murderer in the pared-down electronics of “Would-Be Killer,” while in the jaunty “A Little Better” he sings about trying to turn abject loneliness into spiritual uplift.

Even the most musically jubilant pop song here, “Going On,” carries a despondent undertow. Mr. Burton propels the song with a bustling drum track and an organ surge riding just behind it. It’s a fabulously frenetic pulse, over which Mr. Callaway sings about, well, either losing his mind or losing his life: “My mind is already gone / And though there are other unknowns / Somehow this doesn’t concern me.”

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Panic! at the Disco traffics in a very different sort of melodrama. Its 2005 debut packed more references to the novels of Chuck Palahniuk than a tribute Web site, along with passing allusions to the works of Douglas Coupland, Wes Anderson, and Patrick Marber. Yes, the four young men in Panic! — guitarist Ryan Ross, drummer Spencer Smith, vocalist Brendon Urie, and new bassist Jon Walker — know their pop-culture cults. And for their sophomore release, “Pretty. Odd.,” the group embraces another cult-like pop icon: Queen.

“Pretty. Odd.” is a rococo, extravagant, and orchestral glam album packing 15 incorrigibly sweet and bucolic songs into 49 minutes. Panic! at the Disco may not yet hit the operatic heights of Freddie Mercury’s old band, but that doesn’t stop these four young Americans from trying.

From the pastoral “Do You Know What I’m Seeing?” and the almost country-rocking “That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)” to the folksy mope of “Northern Downpour” and the Renaissance Faire dance of “She Had the World,” Panic! at the Disco winningly follows up the Facebook-tinged dance-pop of “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” with an album of such lush orchestrations and hand-wringing lyrics that it’s practically a 1970s concept album. It might not crack the pop charts as easily as Gnarls Barkley will, but don’t be surprised if the Panic! at the Disco faithful push it into platinum status at a brisk clip.