So what makes a good remix to a song? I've always enjoyed LONGER club remixes, especially those who have a straightforward trance element as opposed to house or anything else. Just a preference...but when is it too much? Back when I used to go out of my way to buy import singles that contained hard-to-find remixes of the hottest songs, I would be easily pleased with what I found. Now...it really seems as even remixes are falling off and just becoming way repetitive and too boring.
Chew Fu, a New York remixer and producer, is the mastermind behind RIHANNA's remixed version of her megahit album Rated R. For the most part, his remixes work well enough to get you dancing in the clubs...but I found myself wondering what in the hell he was thinking when he got into the lab to work on the newer versions of her songs. Take Hard (...Granite Fix) for instance...I have a HUGE issue with people who take a song just to STRETCH out the vocals of the performer, making them sound completely ridiculous. He does it quite a few times, including on the Can't Wait No More Fix to Wait Your Turn. The album actually becomes too predictable as the same sounds and beats get transferred over to every song. On the Guns in the Air Fix to the song G4L, the track starts off catchy and anticipatory...building up suspense as the intro goes in full force...but as soon as the beat drops, it sounds as like an 80s car-racing video game suffering from Turrets Syndrome. Definitely hard to listen to. There are good points to the CD including the Molotov Fix to Fire Bomb and the Small Room Fix to Stupid Love...Chew Fu did a great job of taking slow- and mid-tempo cuts and turning them into danceable tracks that aren't flamboyantly overdone...like what most are used to when it comes to this type of music.
Rated R was one of the hardest albums of 2009. This remixed version of the album does strip away the literal rage that RIHANNA was trying to portray by incorporating gyrating beats that are sure to get people thrusting on the dance floor. It was a decent effort by the legendary remixer who has done cuts for Kanye West, Lady Gaga, and others...but I'd rather take the original version of the album. It's much more profound...and much less annoying...to listen to.
Oh...and the intro cut Madhouse wasn't turned into a full-length song...instead it's just a mechanical version of the already-out-of-place interlude that opened up the album in the first place.
SONGS that I thought were ALRIGHT from RATED R: REMIXED:
• Rockstar 101 featuring Slash (Teacher's Pet Fix)
• Photographs featuring will.i.am (35mm Fix)
• Rude Boy (Vitamin S Fix)
• G4L (Guns in the Air Fix)
From RIHANNA's "Rated R: Remixed" album, here's "Russian Roulette (Chew Fu Black Russian Fix...)"
The BABYBOICAMPBELLS REVIEW will return NEXT WEEK TUESDAY, JUNE 1st with BRAND NEW REVIEWS on UPCOMING ALBUMS from TAIO CRUZ and LA INDIA!
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED.
Written by Felix-Lee "Campbells" Andrades, III
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