AWmusic

Paul Oakenfold is arguably one of the most well-known trance DJ worldwide. His latest CD, Oakenfold: Greatest Hits & Remixes, contains a blend of his own original dance tunes along with his remixes of many other popular hits. Although I’m not too acquainted with this type of music, I enjoyed the album as it contained remixes of many songs that I like.

Of the 20 songs on the album, there were only 6 songs that were originally his. I heard ‘Starry Eyed Surprise’ before. I found it cheesy and didn’t like it very much. Planet Rock was no better, I hated the lyrics and the low voice made parts of the song sound like 90′s Run-DMC raps. ‘Faster Kill Pussycat’ was just meh. Apparently a lot of people like that song but I don’t really know what all the hype is about. His songs that I really liked are ‘Southern Sun’, ‘Dread Rock’ (from Matrix Revolution), and ‘Ready Steady Go’. The beginning for ‘Ready Steady Go’, though, was pretty much the same as the beginning of his Dirty Vegas remix, just in a different octave.

The rest of the songs are all his remix of other popular songs. The ones I liked are ‘My Love’ by Justin Timberlake ft. T.I., ‘James Bond Theme’ by David Arnold, ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ by Radiohead, ‘Sorry’ by Madonna, and ‘Beautiful Day’ by U2. Although I really liked the original version of ‘My Love’, the Oakenfold remix is a lot faster and energetic and would probably be more appropriate in a dance club setting. I do miss the “hehehehehe” munchkin parts though. The beginning of the ‘James Bond Theme’ remix is really good as it’s got the speed and hype of a good action flick that really pumps adrenaline into you.

There were some songs that I didn’t like much and felt should be left out. First is ‘Days Go By’ by Dirty Vegas. I remember listening to the original song like 6 years ago. It was electronica to begin with and the remixed version wasn’t very much different. ‘Jack Theme Suite’ by Hans Zimmer was a good remix, but Tiesto already did one for a Pirate of the Carribean theme song and his was better. The remix of ‘Perfect’ by The Smashing Pumpkins was very energetic and fast in the beginning, but as soon as it got to the part where Billy Corgan sings, the song just kinda lost all its hype and it never really regained it until Billy Corgan stopped singing.

Overall, the album flowed nicely but wasn’t great. There were some songs that I really liked but the rest just feels like “fillers” to me, which is kind of disappointing since it is a Greatest Hits CD. Maybe I’m a complete noob when it comes to techno and don’t know what the hell I’m talking about but it’s $15 I’d keep in my pocket.

Justin Timberlake (Featuring T. I.) – My Love [Paul Oakenfold Remix]

Radiohead – Everything in Its Right Place [Exclusive New Oakenfold 2008 Remix]

Paul Oakenfold (Feat. Brittany Murphy) – Faster Kill Pussycat

Check out Oakenfold’s website and MySpace for more tunes and concert listings:
www.pauloakenfold.com
www.myspace.com/pauloakenfold

Click here to buy this CD

Anyway Paul Oakenfold released his Greatest Hits & Remixes on October 23rd. Tracks on this include some of his recognizable hits like Ready Set Go, Starry Eye Surprise (featuring the lead singer of Crazy Town) and remixes of popular bands including Radiohead, Massive Attack, The Smashing Pumpkins and U2. You can sample the album here.
You can listen to an exclusive track “Southern Sun” (Real Player only) found on the CD.

From the title you are probably here to win a signed copy of “Greatest Hits & Remixes”. It’s a drawing. To enter it’s easy:
1) Leave a comment with you’re name and at least a valid e-mail.
2) To receive a 2nd entry, you can subscribe to my feed by e-mail and leaving a comment.

Winner will be selected and e-mailed on December 11th where I will ask for your address and then the CD will be sent out to you.

Here are some tracks by Paul Oakenfold you probably heard of but are pretty good:
Ready Set Go by Paul Oakenfold

Muse – New Born (Paul Oakenfold Remix)