Looking for a quick fix for some of the biggest commercial dance chart toppers of the past decade? You can't do any better than this CD, packed with 19 radio edits of the biggest dance chart tracks in the nation. Not mixed like a "traditional" dance mix, here you have the radio edits placed together tightly- so although there's no mixing, the CD plays nearly like a continuous mix CD. I really have never seen any CD quite like this one- every single song is a certified top hit, no filler. These aren't the original versions, but the dance remixes. Opening with the Jason Nevins radio edit of Kelly Clarkson's "Since You Been Gone" and ending with the Soul-Hex radio version of "Un-Break My Heart," this CD doesn't let up.
You'll find dance classics like Deborah Cox "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" (Hex Hector), Whitney Houston "It's Not Right But It's OK" (Thunderpuss), Mariah Carey "Dreamlover" (David Morales) alongside relatively newer mainstream hits such as Kelly Clarkson "Since You've Been Gone" (Jason Nevins), Fantasia "It's All Good" (Scumfrog) and Alicia Keys "Diary" (Hani). You'll even get a little dose of some trendy underground mixes, exemplified by Sarah McLachlan's "World on Fire" (Junkie XL). There's a few surprises too- like when you hear Junior Vasquez's Sirius radio edit of Maroon 5's "This Love"... Vasquez drops a chorus from their other hit "She Will Be Loved" into this mix. Armand Van Helden's remix of Britney Spears' "Toxic" is another surprise since it was Lenny B's remix that was played on mixshows and would fit better on this compilation.
I'm giving props to Hosh Gureli who programmed this CD, the flow from one track to the next is thematically cool- like when Whitney's "It's Not Right" goes into Fantasia's "It's All Good". The top-selling mainstream artists combined with some of the best dance remixers on the planet make this CD pretty much undeniable.
Face it, sometimes you don't want to hear a "musical journey" with dubby two-minute segues before a vocal or cool riffs hits. Sometimes you want to just hear the damn song already. Being a DJ, I guess I can say that- 'cause I love mixing and totally believe in the journey. I also believe in the quick fix. Take for instance Armand Van Helden's extended remix of Britney Spears' "Toxic": the break in that particular mix is a total floor-killer, and yet what he does with the rugged guitar riff and the meat of the song is incredible. Well, with the edit here, you won't be suffering through any of that long break nonsense. All DJ ego has been edited and left on the cutting room floor, and yet the CD focuses on the actual DJ remixes.
So for all you people that get bored with the "monotony" of
house mixing etc etc, this one's for you, babe. And hopefully radio
jocks will get their grubby little hands on this and put a little
variety in their junky hip-hop nonstop sets. You like the songs, so
get this CD- you'll hear a taste of DJ Culture and a wallop of
mainstream mayhem. I give this CD a perfect mark because I dig the
remixers featured here, and I love how the whole dance CD stigma (I
get bored) is instantly obliterated with these tightly segued radio
edits. I love the "no-filler" idea, and I think somebody at Sony/BMG
is earning their paycheck getting a project like this through the
gates. And hey, I had forgotten how great Morales' mix of Mariah's
"Dreamlover" sounds. This kind of thing should come out more often;
leave the "journey" to the clubs and in the meantime give the people
what they want. Trust me, along with your esoteric DJ mixes, you want
this too.