{"id":41447,"date":"2009-04-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/regenerations\/"},"modified":"2009-04-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-04T00:00:00","slug":"regenerations","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/regenerations\/","title":{"rendered":"Re:Generations"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, today on the DV we\u2019re going to deal with a Big Question: what, exactly, is the purpose of a remix or mash-up CD? Is it to remain true to the work of the original artist, or is it to radically reinterpret that artist\u2019s work through the lens of another artist? Or to put it another way, what\u2019s more important; faithfulness to the original work or novelty?<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have an answer for this, but I have figured out one thing. A good remix or tribute CD manages, on some level, to do both — to pay tribute to the original work but still let the remixer have something to say. By this standard, Re: Generations<\/i> succeeds admirably. Like a wedding, there\u2019s something old, something new, something borrowed, and just a touch of blues to make it all worthwhile.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As you might expect from a CD with a small army of producers and remixers, the production and engineering on Re: Generations<\/i> is impeccable. I assume that these tracks use the recent remasters of Cole\u2019s work, some of which has been reviewed here. Nothing on here sounds muddy or fuzzy; this is all as crisp as if Cole and his co-conspirators had recorded it yesterday.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Tracks worth especial notice include Will.I.Am\u2019s fresh take on \u201cStraighten Up And Fly Right\u201d (with a guest appearance by Natalie Cole), Cut Chemist\u2019s head-turning remix of \u201cDay In, Day Out,\u201d The Roots\u2019 swinging remix of \u201cWalking My Baby Back Home\u201d (though it\u2019s spoiled a bit by the rap break at the end, which seemed unnecessary), Damian and Stephen Marley\u2019s reggae-tinged rave-up of \u201cCalypso Blues,\u201d and the 21st Century Cab Calloway overtones of Souldiggaz and Weirdos\u2019 \u201cHit That Jive, Jack!\u201d My favorites, however, have to be the funny, funny Just Blaze reworking of \u201cPick Up, \u201cwhich turns a somewhat dated cruising song into a hilarious dialogue, and Bitter:Sweet\u2019s absolute nailing of \u201cMore And More Of Your Amor.\u201d There are a couple of miscues — I\u2019m not sure where Salaam Remi and Nas were going with \u201cThe Game Of Love,\u201d but it didn\u2019t work for me — but on the whole, Re: Generations<\/i> is a brilliant tribute to a brilliant performer.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Music can be described as the process of always having something new to say about something old. Re: Generations<\/i> demonstrates that admirably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":29832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7950],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41447","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-nat-king-cole","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41447","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41447"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}