mixtape maestro (2.0)

With it’s positive-minded lyrics and gleeful, disco-cribbed beat, “Just Fine” was so cheery, it instantly rubbed many Mary J fans of old the wrong way. But this somewhat tardy, Swizz Beatz-handled remix should win them over, thanks to it’s electric, Chubb Rock-nodding hip hop swerve and…oh yes, quite delightful Weezy cameo.

Up there with House of Pain’s “Jump Around” as one of the funnest rap beat loops to drop in the previous decade, Chubb Rock’s deliriously enslaving “Treat Em Right” is resurrected with great skill, providing a welcome street energy (and much sought after return to the What’s the 411?/ My Life sound) to the Mary J single. Ironically, it’s Blige’s parts that end up landing as a mere afterthought since it’s surrounded by too much heat from the track’s guest contributors to garner much notice.

You get Brooklyn female rapper Precise rocking a nice-on-the-ears, old-school-seasoned flow in the jump-off verse, adding to the track’s nostalgic spunk; Swizz reminding us why he’s the king of the hypeman interjections with more contagious chants; then Wayne popping up on the tail-end to bite Chubb lines and bow down to the Queen (“Miss Mary J I am so obliged/ For you to in-volve Weezy baby/ Told my Mom and she went crazy”) in another one of the fiery sixteens he seems to have an endless supply of.

This is the sound of Mary J pulling a Stella and getting her (hip hop) groove back. Now that’s what we call just fine (fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, WHOOO!!).

(WARNING!! Once you play this, you’ll experience a sudden urge to watch “House Party” and break out in the Running Man or any other early-90′s urban dances.)

DL: “Just Fine (Treat Em Right Remix)” (YFH)

There was little as simultaneously frightening and irresistibly pop-tastic in the 1980′s as Pete Burns’ carnivorous appetite in Dead or Alive’s smash hit “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)”. To this day, the idea of Boy George’s eye-patched, evil twin sister chasing after you with threats of “I could trace your private number baby” sung in a bloodcurdling deep voice over a busy, Hi-NRG dance beat is still spine-tingling.

On this new folksy cover, heralded singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore sheds the song of it’s clubby allegiance, expressing the lyric’s private yearnings against a seducing organic bed of intertwining noodling guitar lines that expose a timeless pop simplicity in “Round” that may have been obscured by Burns’ attention-grabbing appearance or the original version’s then-state-of-the-art synth invasion.

While Gilmore’s ethereal vocal bears a mesmerizing heaviness and the instrumentation plays it mostly straight, the reading isn’t completely self-serious. Some homage to the track’s initial kitschy appeal emerges when the folk groove settles into a light bounce on the verses, and Thea sounds like she’s enjoying the remake opportunity, with a subtle smirk occasionally felt in her performance.

It’s a pleasant enough recreation, but it’ll only fuel interest in hearing Dead or Alive’s definitive version all over again. It’s kinda hard to top an androgynous pop divo sounding like some horny 300-year-old vampire while obsessing over his prey over an addictive dance thump.

DL: Thea Gilmore’s “You Spin Me Round” (YFH)

DL: Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round” (YFH)

Nowhere near the transcendent illumination of “Crazy” or the Transylvanian-R&B stomp of “Smiley Faces”, but on-par with the rest of St. Elsewhere‘s ashen, psychedelic-soul-rock output, Gnarls Barkley’s “Run” mainly serves as a re-introduction to the intoxicating chemistry that Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse share.

“Run away!!/ Run children!!/ Run for your life!!”, the pot-bellied vocalist warns, carving out another great edge-of-insanity performance assisted by Danger’s acidic, deep-in-the-crate beats. Their theatricality sounds a bit formulaic after the mainstream success of “Crazy”, but that doesn’t mean the two have lost any of their spooking intensity. When Cee-Lo’s shouted lines start to get all tangled up over the rhythm’s manic rush, it conjures up a sense of impending doom so strong, you’ll be searching for that old nightlight just to peacefully catch some z’s.

Let the excitement for Round Two begin, if for nothing else than to see what crazy get-ups the duo don this time around.

DL: “Run” (YFH)

So after all the silly “punctuation” hoopla and predictable talk of musical maturity, is “Nine In The Afternoon”, the lead single from Panic at the Disco’s upcoming Pretty. Odd., really worth all the fuss?

Well, while there’s elements to it that are instantly attractive to the ear, “Nine In The Afternoon” swells with so many goings-ons that it’ll take a few listens before you can develop a fully-formed opinion of it. Jam-packed with a circus-like array of instrumentation and thick harmonies that’ll lead to several tiresome Beatles/ Queen comparisons down the line, “Afternoon”‘s deal-breaker emerges as it nearly overdoses on it’s attempt at creating the prettiest of pop sounds.

With that in mind, the best way to approach this is listening to it from the innards out. Focus in on Brenden Urie’s perfected yowlings of a re-grasped bliss and stew in his happy-go-lucky vibe. This is where “Afternoon” excels, bearing a warmth-inducing positivity that’s commanding in all it’s melodic purity (with the only real misstep being that the lyrics aren’t as sharp as they could be). Things get a bit polarizing, though, as your ears venture outward to take in all the epic happenings occurring on the outskirts of the track.

The intentions of displaying artistic growth and nodding to the expert songcraft of our most respected pop icons are understood and Panic’s use of track sweetening is accomplished dutifully. On the other hand, all the extra ornamentation also blatantly screams of a “Look, y’all! We listened to Sgt. Peppers prior to these studio sessions!!” type of desperation, siphoning out some of the track’s joyousness amidst it’s strain for attention-grabbing musical supremacy.

Riding a fine line between well-studied pop brilliance and ill-advised overindulgence, “Nine in the Afternoon” will surely be the target for plenty of heated, back-and-forth Internet conversations. However it’s taken, “Nine in the Afternoon” succeeds as a definite game-changer, leading the newly exclamation-less band in an intriguing new direction.

DL: “Nine in the Afternoon” (YFH)

While it’s understandable to wish that T-Pain would fall into some bottomless pit somewhere (I mean, the man is unavoidable), at the same time you have to admit that this past year, music would have been quite boring without him. Without him we would have had nothing to drunkenly sing along to in 2007. On “Booty Music”, a new track he produced for Florida boy band Deep Side, he makes it even harder to despise him.

A cartoony R&B song against making love to slow jams (“Everybody don’t like it slow/ Consider me one of them folk”), “Booty Music” lands as a straight-faced SNL spoof throwing in random bits of wackiness (like the faux-Fat Man Scoop shouting out astrological signs on the hook) amidst typical horny frat boy banter (“Don’t stop/ Get it, get it/ Pop that coochie/ Let me hit it”). On their own, such lyrics probably wouldn’t register as much past their initial WTF? humor, but T-Pain’s know-how behind the producer board help ease all the corniness. Thanks to his playful ping-pong melodies and floaty, crunk-lite groove (not to mention the Deep Side member’s breezy boy-ish tenors), references to
“donkey rides”, love handle gripping, and hair extensions wrapped around ankles become far more easier to swallow.

Aww, T-Pain. If loving you is a crime (and really, it should be), we don’t ever want to be legal.

DL: “Booty Music” (YFH)

One of the greatest pop songs of the aughts, “Last Nite” has such a catchy, familiar melody that could work in any number of various styles (hell, The Strokes blended about five or six in their own treatment) that it’s a wonder it hasn’t re-charted around the world in a billion different sounding versions by now (we’ll forget that awkward cover/ Blondie mash-up Vitamin C flopped with last year ever existed).

With her smoky soul pipes, 2008 UK up-and-comer Adele could’ve easily taken “Last Nite” in an interesting R&B-tinged direction (sort of like the Jumbonics here), and the ballad-y intro, with her vampy vocals deliciously spread over a lone guitar backing, hints that is exactly what’s about to go down. But then her supporting band just as soon jumps into a mimic of The Strokes’ post-punk-meets-Motown stomp (down to the guitar solo), instantly transforming what was being birthed as an inspired revamp into a less appealing, slick karaoke session.

DL: “Last Nite (The Strokes Cover)” (YFH)

Unlike “Last Nite”, Adele thankfully sounds like she’ll live up to all she seems to promise on her debut album, 19, which, based on early reviews, actually supports (some of) the hype she’s been bombarded with since “Hometown Glory” was introduced to the public.

Album track “Right On Rain” should land as a fan favorite. Wrapping her mature soul chops amidst a perky, ’60′s piano-pop groove you could envision someone like John Legend bopping along to, Adele ironically grasps the down times in life as a moment to celebrate (“Who wants to be right as rain/ It’s better when something is wrong”). Some may take this as a sort of pessimistic outlook, but the woman actually has a point.

True happiness never really lasts forever, so instead of wasting so much time searching for an unrealistic eternal bliss, take a second and get a kick out of life when you’re down in the dumps, two months behind on rent with no one to share a bed with. You end up learning so much about yourself and it all results in you embracing a refreshing sense of fearlessness.

“I give up on this endless game,” she belts at a no-good lover, daring him to “Go ‘head and steal my heart and make me cry again/ ‘Cause it will never hurt as much as it did then”. Only because she followed her own advice could she work up the nerve to dismiss him so nonchalantly.

Adele, you might fail at meeting our high expectations when covering The Strokes, but when it comes to your own material, you definitely get an A+. Plus, as it turns out, you’re not a bad life coach either.

DL: “Right As Rain” (YFH)

On the gorgeous “Vienna”, former-skateboarder-turned-singer-songwriter Matt Costa mourns for the warm familiarity of some lost love (or city) over a breezy, bossa nova rhythm that soothingly melts it’s way under your skin. “Winter can’t ignore her/ Spring will bring her back to blossoms/ Summer bring her back to me now,” he sings, his plaintive vocal adding further horizontal layers to the track’s precious linear roll.

His words might edge with a sense of desperation (“Anything I got to do now/…Just bring her back to me”), but the calming grace of “Vienna”‘s arrangement offsets such panic, it’s lingering melancholy assuring that one day he’ll be within grasp of whatever it is he’s after.

A quietly romancing beauty, it can be found on Costa’s equally impressive current release, Unfamiliar Faces.

DL: “Vienna” (YFH)

Could Flo Rida actually be still worth mentioning by the time August rolls around? It seemed highly unlikely before, but suddenly it doesn’t look like he’s destined to fade back into obscurity as quickly as your typical ringtone rap sensation.

Despite it’s enormously grating shout-out to Nelly denims and furry footwear, “Low” continues to maintain a sizable audience and the previously leaked “Radio” carries a booming Southern rap charm that’ll definitely garner heavy automobile spins as the temperature gets hotter. Now summer’s a long way off, but Flo Rida is fully prepared in the interim, already promising a springtime radio lock courtesy of the Timbaland-laced smash-to-be “Elevator”.

The Virginian big beat expert steals the show here, adding weight to Flo Rida’s tiresome “honies in brand name gear” obsession with another stroke of next-level production genius. Tim fires up a potent every-which-way aural assault, employing blaring horns and electro sprinkles that exaggerate the track’s restless beatbox boogie. But it’s the widescreen hook that truly makes this a standout stunner. Reminiscent of the Prince-y synth splash that made “Promiscuous” so irresistible, “Elevator” hits the top floor and beyond on the chorus, bursting alive with an epic pop touch as Timbaland infectiously stutters “She stuck on my ele-elevator”.

Flo Rida still doesn’t seem like he’ll be remembered past another New Year’s, but damn if he doesn’t have the goods to get us at least half-way through 2008.

DL: “Elevator” (YFH)

…And a star is born

Just as the official remix to Kanye’s “Flashing Lights” featuring R. Kelly has begun making it’s blog rounds (alongside noted bootleg revamps from Raheem DeVaughn, Wale and Black Buddafly), a new cat out of Canada threatens to steal the Louis Vuitton Don’s thunder with his own melodic pop re-working of the single.

Tagged a “one man pop band”, 26-year-old Colin Munroe not only writes and produces his own material, he also plays all the instruments for it as well (reportedly, he plays multiple instruments simultaneously during his live stage show). Already credited on recordings from urban Canadian acts like Glenn Lewis and Saukrates, he’s now set to drop his own self-created solo album, Don’t Think Less of Me, featuring label support from US hitmaker Dallas Austin (TLC, Madonna, Monica). Look for his buzz to increase a thousand-fold, thanks to his impressive Kanye rip-off “I Want Those Flashing Lights”.

Where others basically laid new vocal over the stunning instrumental, Munroe opts for a more original path, splicing together samples of the record then thickening it out with added musical elements; from there he laces it with masterfully-penned meta-styled lyrics. Singing from the perspective of a struggling artist who is jealous over the more successful ones he yearns to share the spotlight with, Munroe mocks his own pitiful (non-)existence (“You got your name in lights and they can’t seem to spell my name right”), but rather than give up, finds continued strength in his unwavering ambition to make his dreams come true (“If I could get paid/ I’d survive another day/ Maybe if I could get played/ They’d know my name”).

Throwing in witty moans about his lack of groupies (“I only wanted one but I’m no one so I get nothing”) and restyling the hook to correspond with his own goals (“When I’m alone and the lights go off/ I’m never sure if I can make it that far/ All that I know/ I want those flashing lights”), Munroe’s intriguing balance of the self-deprecating and inspiring adds an intoxicating layer of insight that makes the burgeoning hit original suddenly seem insignificant in comparison (Sorry, Kanye!).

Hopefully, instead of throwing a temper tantrum over someone else greatly improving his own song, Mr. West will jump on the track himself and make it an even bigger event.

DL: “I Want Those Flashing Lights (Kanye West Cover)” (YFH)

Look for Don’t Think Less of Me to drop in March; check out Colin’s MySpace to hear some of his other music.

(Shout out to You Heard That New…? for the discovery!! Head there to pick up the highly-in-demand R. Kelly remix!!)

With his fifteen minutes nearing the half-way mark, it’s no surprise that Flo Rida, the buff rap newcomer behind one of the most annoying songs currently in heavy radio rotation (one day we’ll look back and be embarrassed for allowing “Low” to be such a huge record), refuses to budge from the apparently winning club-centric formula of his T-Pain-assisted debut smash.

“Radio”, the next single from his upcoming debut Mail On Sunday, might not feature our favorite vocoder-ed R&B jester, but it damn near mimics “Low”‘s poly-rhythmic slam while nestling another anthemic hook (“I’m-a play my radio/ Listen to my radio/ Turn it up if it’s too low/ Bitch I’m from the ghetto”) sure to become a part of popular vernacular. Still, I have to give Flo credit for this one. Trading in an appreciation for big booty strippers for a love for booming sound systems, “Radio” comes across more dumb-fun (think Rich Boy’s “Throw Some D’s”) than plain dumb-dumb (Eminem’s “Ass Like That”).

As proud of his stereo as an ’70′s kid of his first Big Wheel (“That’s my show stopper/ Club hopper/ In your ear like door knockers”), Flo happily soundtracks the blocks, setting heads everywhere on instant nod to the earthquaking beats emanating from his ride. It’s efforts would be pointless if it’s backing track didn’t live up to all the hype and “Radio”‘s production passes with flying colors, taking on the best elements of Southern rap with thudding bass drops, staccato synth blips and regal horns that adds to it’s larger-than-life bravado.

Does it transcend Flo Rida’s disposability? Not really, but it’s promise of being the rapper’s second claim to fame greatly outmatches his first in long-lasting appeal.

DL: “Radio” (YFH)