Strike while the fire is hot. David Cook from American Idol had 11 singles in the Hot 100 shortly after his big win. Lil Wayne put up seven Hot 100 singles the week of Tha Carter III. On a much more intimate scale, Sally Shapiro-- the pseudonymous Swedish chanteuse whose Disco Romance debut LP has been bewitching audiences with its fragile mix of warm-hearted synth-pop and icy Italo disco since its original European release in 2006-- has now released her second remix album of 2008. Artistically if not commercially, it's a better idea than Wayne's godawful guest verse on the latest Mariah Carey remix.
Great though Disco Romance is, I'm not sure how many people were clamoring for two volumes of remixes from it. Of the people who might be inclined to check out Remix Romance Vol. 2, though, I can't imagine too many will feel their 10 bucks (or, sigh, torrent ratio) were completely wasted. Remix Romance Vol. 1 came as the famously reticent Shapiro was stepping out with her first interviews and DJ gigs, and its 10 tracks turned her shy bedroom disco into disco-disco, putting her wispy vocals and sugar-frosted melodies through the club-friendlier paces of top-notch remixers such as Lindstrøm, Junior Boys, and Juan MacLean. It was a surprisingly successful reconfiguration of the sound Shapiro and producer Johan Agebjörn conceived for Disco Romance, and Remix Romance Vol. 2 is, despite a slight overall drop in quality, refreshingly of a piece with its predecessor.
With so many versions of the same Shapiro material already floating around on the world's luckier hard drives, Remix Romance Vol. 2's best tracks tend to rework their originals rather dramatically. Much as Norway's Lindstrøm did "Time to Let Go" as epic psychedelic disco, Canada's the Russian Futurists make Shapiro's signature internet hit, "I'll Be By Your Side", into a Russian Futurists song. Considering the Russian Futurists are, like Shapiro, synth-pop romantics who tend to send critics scrambling for snowflake-flimsy metaphors, their "Side" keeps plenty of Shapiro's spirit even while adding bouncy lo-fi beats, thrumming guitar-like synths, and lead vocals by the group's Matthew Adam Hart. The Postal Service half Dntel puts sparse, glitchy beats reminiscent of his other group's "Against All Odds" cover behind "Find My Soul", with wobbly vocal effects that perhaps explain why the song has been retitled "Find My Ghost". An Italo disco original, Alexander Robotnick, shifts the Roger Gunnarsson-written "Anorak Christmas" from synth-driven twee carol to beat-heavier Eurovision contestant.
Newer artists also find plenty to say through Shapiro's songs. Montreal's CFCF-- whose remixing credits include Crystal Castles, HEALTH, the Teenagers, and Apache Beat-- kicks off the compilation with a version of "Time to Let Go" that sounds like Justice if their steez were 1980s adult-contemporary rather than heavy metal, as cheesed-out keyboards float across muscular bass lines and thumping beats. Closer to a proper Ed Banger banger is a remix of the same song by Spitzer, a buzzy French brother duo who also recently remixed Kylie Minogue; they chop up Shapiro's vocals and use them as wordless accompaniment for their aggressive filter-disco. Two contributions by fellow Frenchman Dyylan may be excessive, but his takes on "Hold Me So Tight" and U.S. Disco Romance bonus track "Jackie Jackie" could hardly be more different-- the first lush and upbeat, the second spaced-out and beatless, a pleasant-enough comedown to finish the album.
Remix Romance Vol. 2 isn't going to be anybody's favorite album of 2008, but it doesn't have to be. Aside from unnecessarily reprising Agebjörn's "Norwegian electrojazz" remix of "Find My Soul", which much of Shapiro's Web-savvy fanbase will probably have already heard from the original Swedish Disco Romance, the second compilation of Shapiro remixes continues to put enough new touches on Shapiro's slight if solid songbook to offer the diehards (for whom this release is presumably intended) a few fresh twinges of romance. New listeners should still head straight for the proper LP, but in a time when remixes have come to function more like blog-oriented marketing tools than something fans or DJs might actually spend money on, Remix Romance Vol 2. sounds less like a case of striking while the fire is hot than a breath of fresh air. And with global warming working its magic on my air-conditioning bills lately, even the slightest breeze is welcome.
