Search - Idina Menzel :: Gorgeous

Two simply gorgeous remixes out of eight

Daniel W. Kelly | Long Island, NY United States | 01/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Where as Idina's last track, Defying Gravity, felt sort of forced as a dance song, Gorgeous is ripe for remixing, and I can't imagine how anyone could take the fantastically melodic chorus and screw it up--but several remixers here do. Tracy Young's mix runs 8:22 and is a little too tribal and noisy for the beauty of the song. The Lior Magal vocal dub runs 7:03 and fails to use much vocal, despite the name, and therefore, doesn't capture the essence of the song, watering down into a repetitive house track. The Funky Junction mix runs 8:07 and goes for a more hard electro house mix, still not perfect for the song, but better than the others. Craig C's Master mix runs 7:29 and is a wonderful circuit anthem that highlights the chord progression of the chorus. The Scotty K mix runs 7:05 and is a little more chaotic than the Craig C mix, but still good. At only 5:46, the Redtop mix revels in the fantastic vocal performance by Idina, making it one of my favorite mixes on here. Angel Manuel's mix runs 7:46, and is so obsessed with its catchy bassline that it pretty much uses Idina's vocals as an afterthought. And Gabriel Digg's mix runs 6:53, and while it's mellow and airy, it just isn't pretty, and again, does not take advantage of Idina's fantastic vocals.



Depending on your dance tastes, you might actually like some of the other mixes, and considering there are so many mixes here, everyone is bound to find a mix that suits their style."

Why screw-up a great song with bad remixes?

Scott Beamer | Phoenix, AZ, USA | 05/05/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"A remix should take a song and give it a *bit* of a different flavor or vibe (re-mix - don't dramatically speed up or slow down the track).



Every producer and their brother feels the need to ruin perfectly good songs by completely changing the tempo in remixes.



If you want to remix a song, fine. So then take an artist's track that's already "Dance" format to begin with and play with it (add/subtract bass, keyboards, drums, horns etc) but don't *completely* change the tempo.



What songs (by the original artist) make for good remixes? Well, I could give scads of examples; but to begin with, most any "dance" track from Madonna. They all make for good remixes (as evidenced by just that - the remixes that exist today).



But otherwise *completely* changing the tempo of an artist's "original" version (Idina Menzel in this case) makes it a new track and ruins it.



"Gorgeous" is a perfect example of a track that doesn't warrant a remix.



If you (Mr/Ms. Record Producer) want to mess with it that much, find somebody else to record it to begin with. Those often turn out quite well (a very good example being Donna's Summer's most excellent cover of "MacArthur Park").



To put it politely, Idina Menzel's "Gorgeous" a great song already. Why do you (Mr/Ms. Record Producer) have to screw it up?



If it ain't broke......."