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Sounds like: Electronic remixes of Phoenix

What’s so good?
Hot off Phoenix‘s amazing 2009 release, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, fifteen artists have gotten together to create a collection of remixes that fall, for the most part, in the realm of indie-electronica. These remixers include Passion Pit, Yacht, Animal Collective and The Soft Pack. The hyped-up result? Mostly disappointing. Paired side by side with Phoenix’s original release (a la the Pepsi-Coke challenge), I would be almost willing to put money on listeners picking the original Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album. Perhaps my analysis is harsh, but I can’t help but feeling this album is one large, epileptic seizure away from flopping.

(you can view the full tracklist here)

I think a good way to go about analyzing this album is to compare it to a successful remix album that stands out in my mind: Do You Trust Your Friends?, a retake of Set Yourself on Fire by Stars. Here’s a comparative analysis:

1. Original Releases: With Set Yourself on Fire, Stars produced an album that was memorable, but not all-together spectacular. On the opposite spectrum, Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was a stand-out album that I’m certain will take the crown as my favorite of 2009, as I am personally unable to find many flaws with it. In summation, pre-remix: 1) Stars were pretty good, and 2) Phoenix absolutely destroyed it.
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3. Featured Artists: Bring on the remixers: this is, perhaps, where the two remixed albums are most alike. Do You Trust Your Friends? brought together a collection of fourteen amazing artists including Metric, The Most Serene Republic and The Dears, all on the same Canadian label, Arts and Crafts. Similarly, Phoenix was able to amass fifteen popular indie acts such as Friendly Fires, Neighbors and Devendra Banhart. Certainly both were able to generate sufficient hype for their remixed albums based simply on who was doing the remixing.
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5. Format: Stars took a quite understandable approach to their remix by replicating their original track order. This was both predictable, and enjoyable for the listener already familiar with their original release. On the opposite spectrum, Phoenix chose to release 15 tracks that covered only eight songs, one of which (Fences) was repeated FIVE times! This is not only repetitive, but it drives me completely bonkers. Granted, they went so far as to not put two Fences tracks in a row, but beyond that, I consider the approach a complete “fail”.
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7. Diversity of Sound: Do You Trust Your Friends? was great for the fact that each artist brought their completely original sound and approach to the song that they were tasked to remix–it was, in fact, a huge factor in what made the album so special for me. With the diversity of artists featured on Phoenix’s remixed album, I was hoping for something similar. Instead, I found myself pretty disappointed by some artists in particular (Friendly Fires, Two Door Cinema Club), who ended up producing a sound that only had hints of their own original work, failing to take it the whole nine yards.
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9. End Result: Do You Trust Your Friends? dramatically improved the listening experience of Set Yourself on Fire (for me, at least), while  the remix of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix failed to live up to its potential, bastardizing perhaps the best release of 2009.

In all, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a “restriction” to much of the remixing–a certain “wholeness” and flow is missing. Played straight through, I can imagine that many unwitting listeners would assume that the same artist had been responsible for the whole album.

As an album, the digital-only Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection) is also kind of frustratingly odd. I doubt even Sofia Coppola will feel the need to listen to the whole thing, straight through, very many times. As for DJs, you can probably guess from the fact that only one of the compilation’s 15 tracks exceeds six minutes this isn’t one of those remix CDs that makes all the originals more dance-friendly. Nor is it a remixed version of the entire album: The whole thing is built from only eight underlying songs. If you’re listening at home, and you want to hear “Fences” five times in a little more than an hour, plus “1901″ and “Lisztomania” a couple of times apiece, and you’re tired of simply putting Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix‘s first three tracks on repeat, then this is the album for you – Pitchfork

elsewhere on the web:
street date review | thestreetdate.com/
phoenix offocial website | wearephoenix.com/

download:
phoenix – armistice (yacht remix).mp3