Review:

on 2010-05-25 jakekingston Said:

I quite enjoy remixes. I find it fascinating how they play on the familiarity of known tracks and occasionally twist the themes and lyrics on their head. The best remixes often rephrase lines in ways that offer new distinct meanings that were most likely unintended by the original artist. Even within remixes there is a taxonomy of subgenres. Rihanna's Rated R (Remixed) falls into the "dance" remix category. I really like Rihanna, check: I really like Rihanna's music, check: I really like the people who write, perform and produce Rihanna's music. Rihanna's not talented enough to write her own tracks, nor can she sing without significant computer aid, but she is the image behind the music, and image does help associate music to fans. So, I like her image. She has this Caribbean pop-punk thing going for her (especially on Rated R) that I think is quite gutsy and original for the mainstream spoon-fed pop music that's out now. So this remix is an aggregate of two enjoyable things: remixes and Rihanna. Great, right? Wrong.

This is basically one DJ re-interpreting Rihanna's tracks so that they all sound identical to the next. Each track blends into the next, which I assume is supposed to give it a Confessions on a Dancefloor feel, but this is no Confessions, and Rihanna is no Madonna. Blips and bleeps keep flowing in and out of the standard one, two monotonous dance beat that permeates. Chew Fu does a good job of doing away with any diversity the songs used to have in their original formation so that the dim-witted clubbers who profess: If it doesn't have a beat, I can't dance to it, can dance to this. His re-interpretations of the lyrics amount to repeating Rihanna's line in Hard: "But the hottest bitch in heels, right here" this way all those clubbers who like to affect some attitude while they dance can feel confident as they repeat this epigram to the rest of their entourage. Nothing here is original, nothing here is inspired. Except Chew Fu's work on Rude Boy. He manages to strip away the Top 40 appeal of this infectious and hugely overplayed tune, and infuse some interesting electro-punk reverberations. Funnily enough, Rude Boy is the only remix on the album that does not follow the standard one, two 2/4 beat as mentioned above. The remixes following Rude Boy would have been much more interesting had Chew Fu deviated, just slightly from monotony on every track prior. I don't mind an occasional dance remix, I just don't like when it's the same dance remix times 10.
Rating: 3/10

on 2010-05-25 jakekingston Said:

Sorry, meant to hit review.
Rating: 3/10