Yet another perfect use for my Rhapsody subscription: listening to the remixes of Spoon's "Don't You Evah".
The tracklist:
- Don't You Evah
- All I Got Is Me
- Don't You Evah (Ted Leo's I Want It Hotter Mix)
- Don't You Evah (Diplo Mix)
- Don't You Evah (Matthew Dear Mix)
- Don't You Evah (DJ Amaze & Alan Astor Mix)
- Don't You Evah (Doc Delay Fixerupper)
- Don't You Ever (The Natural History Original Version)
The new B-side is pretty cool, but...I don't need to own six new versions of a song I already really like a lot. Full disclosure: I don't really get the point of remixes.* Too often they sound like someone created some beat or riff or ambient noise and then graffiti'ed them over the structural beauty of an original song. Sometimes I can recognize parts of the song that was remixed, sometimes I can't, but rarely does the remix do anything to improve upon the original version.
Speaking of the original, here's the video for "Don't You Evah" by Peter Simonite:
Back to the remixes. Ted Leo's "I Want It Hotter Mix" made it the kind of hot that's too humid and all you want to do is lay on the couch and not move. Diplo made some interesting sounds and then mixed in Britt's vocals like he's a noisy nextdoor neighbor echoing in like a non-sequitur. My vision of a remix is actually re-mixing the tracks of the song, pointing out some interesting parts the listener might not have heard before -- say, drop out the bass and isolate the handclaps, maybe add in some sounds here and there. Not create a whole new song and paste in some of the vocal track every once in awhile. In this batch, the version that comes closest to what I envision as a remix is the one by DJ Amaze & Alan Astor.
The Natural History's original version of "Don't You Ever" is great, and an awesome addition to this release. Apparently The Natural History recorded "Don't You Ever" in 2004 for their second full-length album People That I Meet. The record was due to be released in 2005, but then the band split from their label and the record wasn't available to the public until they self-released it in 2007. Spoon obviously heard the song in the meantime and covered it on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Spoon is one of the few bands that chooses cover songs in a way that I never would know they didn't write them.
*I know there are really great remixes, and really talented remixers, out there. But none of the outfits that "Don't You Evah" has tried on here are very flattering. My advice: skip the remixes and just get the B-side and The Natural History's original.
And if you can point me to some great remixes and talented remixers, by all means do.
- Buy Spoon's "All I Got Is Me" mp3 and The Natural History's "Don't You Ever" mp3 from Amazon.