Have you ever heard the phrase, “If it looks like a duck, walks
\nlike a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck”?<\/p>\n
Well, imagine applying this logic when first checking out
\nRemixed Dance Hits<\/i>, a CD credited to James Brown. Let’s
\nfollow the “duck” logic: The CD has James Brown’s name on the
\nspine. It features remixes of songs by James Brown. It even has
\nJames Brown’s picture on the cover. Yet once you slap this disc
\ninto the player, what comes out of your speakers is only distantly
\nrelated to James Brown, as these remixes work samples from Brown’s
\nbest-known songs into a frenzied beat-per-minute dance-a-thon.<\/p>\n
So, while the “if it walks like a duck” logic usually is right,
\nRemixed Dance Hits<\/i> is the exception. In short, duck it.
\n(Gee, aren’t you glad you waited for the eventual double
\nentendre?)<\/p>\n
All of this might lead you to think I’m ready to rip into
\nRemixed Dance Hits<\/i> like a member of a weight-loss group
\nwould dive into a vat of Ben & Jerry’s. Actually, I’m not gonna
\ndo that. Granted, there was disappointment that some of these songs
\nstrayed quite far from the original versions that people know and
\nlove. But taken as its own unique creature, this disc isn’t
\nactually bad at all – in fact, it’s downright enjoyable at
\ntimes.<\/p>\n
Let’s be honest, this isn’t the kind of disc the casual fan of
\nJames Brown will pick up to learn about the Godfather Of Soul;
\nthere are dozens of best-of collections that do a better job for
\nthat purpose. But this is the kind of disc one could see being
\nplayed at a block party (remember those, kids?) or at any gathering
\nwhere you want to turn up the dancing energy a notch. In this
\nregard, this disc succeeds.<\/p>\n
Even in this regard, there’s enough material on
\nRemixed Dance Hits<\/i> that does keep true to the original
\nvisions of the songs. The “Da’ Funked Mix” of “Hot Pants” does
\nsound like something that Brown would have put his stamp of
\napproval on, and even manages to kick the original song into levels
\npreviously unimagined. Likewise, the “Digital Johnson Mix” of “I
\nGot You (I Feel Good),” the “Feel It Mix” of “Papa’s Got A Brand
\nNew Bag” and the “Fredco Mix” of “Super Bad” all will get you up
\nand grooving – even if you did grow up listening to the original
\nversions.<\/p>\n
Only two particular numbers disappoint – the “Get Funky Mix” of
\n“Get Up (I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine, Pt. 1)” and the “Splats
\n& Star Mix” of “Get Up Offa That Thang” fail to really capture
\nanything special. In the case of the latter track, the remixers
\nhappened to choose one of Brown’s weakest “hits” from his career,
\nso I’m willing to concede the source material limited what the
\nremix could become.<\/p>\n
Maybe
\nRemixed Dance Hits<\/i> isn’t meant to be a James Brown CD per
\nse; maybe it’s not only meant to get the younger generation off its
\nRed Bull-laden ass and dancing in the streets, but it’s meant to
\nre-introduce a musical legend to a group who might consider
\nlistening to the source material to be uncool. Admittedly, nothing
\nwill replace those original numbers, but if this is how the new
\ngeneration wants to study James Brown, then I guess something’s
\nbetter than nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6592],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37073","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-james-brown","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37073"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37073"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}