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)

Ingen elskov

This morning while perusing the Forkcast (to see how many of the artists’ names I actually recognized (not very many)) I found a really disturbing remix of the Teenagers’ song Love No. It was mixed by Delorean, whose name is very similar to that of a Portland band, and I didn’t realize until later that they weren’t. I think that if this confusion hadn’t been the case, I wouldn’t have bothered. Why? I like the song, and I didn’t really know if I wanted to see what a remix would do to it.

I said it was disturbing, and I guess I don’t really mean that in a bad way. I think what unsettled me the most was the fact in the remix, Delorean removed all the unkind, unhappy, not in love lyrics, retaining only the constant refrain “Are you in love?” I think you have to have heard the original version for the significance of this change to really sink in -- but even if you haven’t, five and a half minutes of this sad, isolated voice (because in the remix, that’s largely how it sounds) asking whether you’re in love, even over a dance beat, is just… I don’t know. I didn’t like it for the first minute or so, then -- quickly -- it grew on me. And I became even sadder than before. This is one remix I will never dance to.

The Teenagers’ original version of Love No is sarcastic to the core, and when lead Quentin Delafon asks “Are you in love?” it’s a joke. In the remix, it’s plaintive, almost a plea; he really wants you to say yes. The song is still called Love No, though -- maybe because he’s already been told no, and now he’s trying, again, to see if maybe he can get the right answer, even though he knows it’s futile, but maybe just once…

I’m listening to the original again now, and must say -- as much as I like the Teenagers’ unadulterated (had to say it) version, I think the remix is even better. At least it hits me more.

If you do the Pitchfork thing, you probably heard both of these ages ago, but if not, you can download the remix, and stream the original at myspace.

--DL--
Love No – Delorean Remix (the Teenagers)