Hotstop A+B

Long time visitors the 9th Green know that I like to post a review of the week’s big CD release on Tuesday, the only problem being there hasn’t been a marquee act to one since the week before Christmas when Mary J. Blige (see my review - Anybody Who's Ever Loved You Know Just What I Feel) and Jamie Foxx (see my review - Things Have Become So Mundane) both released an album. This week is no different as when I opened up iTunes the week’s big release was a single by The Flaming Lips followed by a single by Brian McKnight. Remember the good old days when all you had to do to get luck was to put on his Back at One to get lucky? But anyways. The first big album on thier homepage was Come Get It - The Very Best of Aaron Carter, which begs the question – Who is Aaron Carter and how does he have a Greatest Hits album?

Things don’t get better next week when the Soundtrack to The Color Purple is the biggest released. January 31st sees the release of the new Train album which has potential of being decent then finally there is an album to get excited about on February 7th with a new Jack Johnson album. Granted it’s the Soundtrack to the Curious George movie so it may be skewed to a younger audience but it does have a cover of The White Stripes We’re Going to be Friend so there is hope. Maybe I will be able to find some new artists much like I did this time last year when I discovered Anna Nalick and Eisley who both landed in the top five of my Best Albums of 2005 list.




So without anything worth review through legit channels I though I’d review the latest mash-up album. This time Coldplay’s latest album X&Y gets the remix treatment courtesy of the guy who brought you Q-Unit which featured songs that mashed-up 50 Cent and Queen. The album got overshadowed by the American Edit that was released around the same time and rightfully so as there were only a few worthwhile songs from the album and the most entertain part of the album was the cover art with 50 sporting Freddie’s uber-gay mustache.

The new album, Hotstop A+B, takes a page out of the American Edit page book by taking one album and mash it up with different artists for each song. And the mash up artist, J.L., uses thirty different songs to accompany the Coldplay album. After listening to the album for the first time my first though was how unmemorable it was. There was not one song that I just had to go back and listen to again like many of the great mash-ups make me do.

The album sounds much more like a techno album that is just made to be played in the background as apposed to a mash-up that should grab your attention. Then there were a few songs that just made me want to skip over upon the second listening like Low Life 69 and You Waiting for the Hardest Part? Get Busy! Another problem is how much the Coldplay songs are covered up to the point that I’m not sure what track from X&Y is being mashed-up. When an album is built around a Coldplay album, I should have to look at the track list to figure out which Coldplay song is supposed to be on it.

Best Songs - Even Better Than That Song One, Check Out the Cold Hard Speed of Sound

And in interest of fairness here a list of songs that I could pick out that were featured on Hotstop A+B that can be bought on iTunes and quotes from movies that can be via Amazon:

Coldplay – X&Y
Blur – Song 2
U2 – Even Better Than the Real Thing
Nas – Got Ur Self a...
Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out of My Head
Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg – Still D.R.E.
Chemical Brother –Block Rocking Beats
Filter – Take a Picture
Outkast – Roses
Beastie Boys – Ch-Check it Out
Jet – Cold Hard (Expletive Deleted)
Gwen Stefani – What You Waiting For?
Sublime - Doin' Time
Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl

Scareface
Pulp Fiction