Music Review: Verve Remixed 4

One often wonders if Verve could’ve saved a whole lot of production costs if it had just lumped the best songs from the last three Verve Remixed compilations onto a single disc and released that instead. The same case could be made for the fourth volume in the series, which suffers from the same problem that plagued the earlier volumes, which is that not many DJs like to do a whole lot of tinkering to the classic compositions they are asked to remix.

Like volume three, which culled most of its remixers from the indie community (Postal Service, RJD2, and Danger Mouse, to name a few), volume four tries for thematic unity by recruiting globetrotting turntablists to work their magic on the Verve back catalog. It’s a gamble that pays off…for the most part. Nina Simone’s “Gimme Some,” a track originally rooted in the blues tradition, is given a Motown sheen by pop producer Mike Mangini, while French electro experimentalist Pilooski does a thumping cut-and-paste number on Simone’s “Taking Care of Business,” making it one of the biggest departures from the original and a definite highlight of the Verve Remixed series. Meanwhile, funk/jazz hybrid group Antibalas transforms the rhumba stylings of Patato & Totico’s “Dilo Como Yo” into something resembling an atmospheric outtake from Panda Bear’s last album.

But for every Pilooski and Antibalas, there’s a Truth & Soul, who simply add a beat to Dinah Washington’s “Cry Me a River” and call it a remix. Even more perplexing is Kenny Dope’s take on James Brown’s “There Was a Time,” which sounds like nothing has been altered, but still ends up being two minutes longer than its original incarnation. As always, the compilation ends on a downtempo note, with The Cinematic Orchestra taking Ella Fitzgerald’s cover of “I Get a Kick out of You” and laying some acoustic guitar over it, as well as a somewhat obnoxious vinyl-scratch sound effect. It’s an anticlimactic end to a somewhat lackluster compilation, but for the people at Verve, I suppose it’s business as usual. (In typical bureaucratic fashion, Verve decided to punish the people who actively searched for a physical copy of the album at record stores. A bonus, album-only remix of Ella Fitzgerald’s “Take the ‘A’ Train” by Mint Royale was added to the iTunes version of the album.)