Den her sang behøvede ikke at have et remiks

I spent an hour this morning trying to get Firefox AK's myspace page to load, and once it did, I wished it hadn't.

Let me explain. I guess that when you have a great song like Anna, you're eventually going to have to let somebody remix it, and who better than a member of your own backing band? However, if I'd been Annika Norlin (otherwise known as Hello Saferide) I might have been tempted to kick Andrea Kellerman (otherwise known as the aforementioned Firefox AK) out of the band when I heard her remix of Anna.

To be fair, it's -- for a remix -- relatively (and blessedly) short, clocking in at 2:55, and I'll admit that it has improved a bit with repeated listens. But this -- the original -- was a song that couldn't have been improved on, and it's also not a song that anyone should ever dance to -- or at least not dance to in the remixed fashion, if you know what I mean. Occasionally, putting electro beats under sad songs works; here it does not. Despite what I said about the remix improving after a few listens, this is not something I want to hear. Ever again.

And it's not just the beat, it's the lyrics. The original Anna is beautiful and heartwrenching (and would be even without the music), but in the remix, half the lines are gone, and the lyrics are destroyed. I just don't know.

On her website, Hello Saferide writes that the remix breaks her heart -- I have to wonder if she really means that in a good way.

Usually, Firefox AK is an artist I can either take or leave. I enjoyed Once I Was Like You; wasn't too fond of Winter Rose. And, of course, she was the other voice on Hello Saferide's Long Lost Penpal -- no complaints there. There are very few artists who are so hit-or-miss for me -- usually I just give up. The Anna remix is definitely a miss, but hopefully whatever she comes out with next will be more along the hit side, because Firefox AK really is an artist I'd like to like.

Download the original version of Anna, or stream the remix here.

--DL--
Anna (Hello Saferide)