It's hard to escape hearing Goldfrapp these days. Even with my passing interest in television, I've managed to see nearly half a dozen commercials featuring that fizzy frappiness. From Verizon to Target to Revlon to promos for the fourth season of nip/tuck, everyone seems to be in love with their strict machine.
A remix album based on already damn-near perfect material is a hard thing to pull off and it's hard to relinquish that nagging feeling that many of the songs were better un-remixed. But for the sake of this review, let's forget that Supernature exists. Let's pretend that an angel visited each of the remixers and said to them, "Here are pieces of songs that do not yet exist. You are tasked with creating a song that pleases. And together ye shall make an album called WE ARE GLITTER. If you succeed, you will be granted entrance into the kingdom. If you fail, you will be forced to watch that Hoveround commercial where old people sing "You Made Me Love You" over and over until the end of all time…"
This remix album calls to mind that most puzzling of eternal questions: which came first? The chicken covered in glitter or the jewel-encrusted egg? What sounds good to you may not sound good to someone else and the selection of remixes strikes a nice balance. Some have made a crystalline-green eggs and ham omelette while others took that chicken and made sequin-covered hot wings. I've heard more than one person say that they like other remixes of certain songs better than particular ones that were chosen. The T. Raumschmiere remix of "Lovely 2 C U" takes the best elements from the original track and then skillfully recreates a delicious bass-heavy tonic of sound. Benny Benassi adds his signature electrogrowls to "Ohh La La" and Múm scales down both "You Never Know" and "Number 1."
There's nothing bad in the entire collection. There's been too much love bestowed on each creation. There's a "too many cooks" element in some of the tracks and a "not enough salt" in others and again it's based on how much flavor you want. Some of us are fine with minimalist ear-pokes. Others of us want to be sonically assaulted.
If you absolutely, balls-out loved SUPERNATURE, you'll probably find most of WE ARE GLITTER pretty tedious. Those who could sing "Fly Me Away" backwards (again you see wanna, sky in the high, aeroplane an on away me fly) probably won't get into the C2 remix even though it is quite lovely. And those who thought SUPERNATURE was a bit too showy will love how some of the songs have been reined in like the FK-EK Vocal Version of "Ride A White Horse"
Perhaps the makers of Hoveround could use that version of "Ride A White Horse" in their next commercial campaign. I mean, who wants to buy something that forces old people to love it? Better yet, have the old people sing "Strict Machine."
Ah Goldfrapp, you made me love you, I didn't want to do it…
