Tom: I was running through the list of ‘forthcoming UK singles’, and I noticed something bizarre. The old Paul Simon song, Graceland. While beautiful, it’s very much Radio 2 music. What on earth is it doing as a new single, remixed? And why on earth have they uploaded it to his actual Vevo channel?
Tom: The answer is, of course, “cash-in remix album“.
Tim: A phrase that’s never sat well with me, indicating as it does that it’s cheap, there’s no point to it and that not much effort was put in, and sometimes none of those is true. One example: the TRON: Legacy Reconfigured album of remixes of the soundtrack, on which a number of remixes are even better than their originals. Having said that…not so sure here.
Tom: And I agree with you, Tim, that a good remix can elevate a song — or even turn a slow guitar track into a big, ironic commercial dance hit. This is certainly a cut above most commercial remixes, but does it really add anything that wasn’t there before?
Tim: Aside from large elements of Paul Oakenfold? Not so much.