Search - Various Artists :: Smash-Ups

Smash-ing!

Mark Bumgardner | Concord, NC United States | 04/13/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I first read about the idea of "mash-ups" a year or so ago in Mojo magazine. Apparently, the concept of computer savy music fans taking the melody from one song and setting it to the backing track of another (completely unrelated) song didn't set well with the original artists when the bootleg versions began turning up on the internet. Nonetheless, it was still great fun, and who hasn't wondered what Glen Campbell would sound like backed by Metallica?



It's somewhat surprising then, that a Christian record label would latch onto the idea and release an "authorized" CD based on this idea. Christian labels aren't exactly known for catching on to trends quickly, if you know what I mean.



Even more surprising is that almost everything here works. The song choices vary from the overly familiar (Newsboys' "Shine" and "Entertaining Angels", DC Talk "Jesus Freak" and "Colored People") to unexpected gems (Grits' "TN Bwoys", John Ruben's "Do Not"), and the actual mash-ups are well thought out.



At first listen, some of the tracks can be quite jarring - the Rebecca St. James -"God"/Earthsuit- "One Time" was startling for me - but the more you hear these tracks, the more you can appreciate the effort which went into putting them together.



The lead track worked the best for me, maybe because it was the only track which mashed-up three songs instead of two. Mixing up Audio Adrenaline's "Get Down", SCC's "Dive", and Grits' "All Fall Down" was inspired.



Even the use of Carman's (ugh!) "Who's In The House" isn't as horrible as it looks on paper when matched with pop queens ZoeGirl's "Even If". Somehow it all works.



I hope this won't be the only time a Christian label tries something like this. There are plenty more great songs out there waiting to mashed-up."

Great idea and a ton of fun!

BluegrassBuys | Louisville, KY USA | 11/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Good stuff! I was just Christmas shopping and I'm guilty of being a bit selfish. I saw this CD and picked it up on a whim. It looked like fun. And it is.I'm not sure if it's what I was expecting, though. When they said they mixed a couple songs together, they did, BUT, they typically take the beat from one and the words from another. Example: River / Live Out Loud has Out of Eden's beat but you never hear them sing. It's just SCC.All in all, very good. I always have to give kudos to original Christian music. Too much of it is an effort to sound like somebody else. This is fresh and original. It makes me happy. And a sequel would make me even happier."