Album of the Week: Feed the Animals / Girl Talk

When Danger Mouse crafted The Grey Album, he set out a very specific challenge for himself - creating "mash-ups" (for lack of a better word) out of songs from only two albums. The challenge, or the exercise, is quite different when Gregg Gillis compiles/composes a Girl Talk album. There's no formula as to how many songs create one track - or where they will come from. Gillis obviously has a taste for modern rap and R&B, but clearly he has an interest in nineties grunge, classic rock and old school hip hop as well. All these sounds from at least five decades of music meet and collide on Girl Talk's fourth release, Feed the Animals.

Feed the Animals is about many things - hence a week's worth of posts devoted to it - but at its core, it is simply about music; how we listen to music, how we evaluate it, and how we remember it. While Gillis claims no political intention with his mix of music, he does boast the ability to recontextualize songs in ways thaty can range from fun to profound. A particular highlight occurs when Pete Townsend's "Let My Love Open the Door" is brought underneath Unk's "Walk it Out" on opener "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)." On "Still Here," he revives the fabulous "No Diggity," propelled with Kanye's "Flashing Lights" beat. Also featuring a sped up "The Weight" and Cassidy's "My Drink, My Two Step" over Ace of Base, "Still Here" is a personal favorite.

With samples on the surface and many buried beneath, there is much discovery to be made while listening to this record. In fact, it took six or seven good listens for me to realize that Radiohead's "Karma Police" and Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" were among the sampled tracks. The risk with this kind of record is that there does ultimately reach a saturation point. While Gillis continues to perfect his art, he does not stray far from the fun party vibe he established on Night Ripper. After successive listens a Girl Talk record can become less fun - violent even - when it seems to be the soundtrack of an excessive culture.

Violent or fun, Feed the Animals remains a remarkable conversation piece - and we will continue to discuss it all week.