Night Ripper
by Girl Talk

From paladisiac TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/09/2011 22:07 | #32536 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

The girl talk albums, like 2006's night ripper, are difficult to critique. The guy just uses a computer and music samples from a wide array of pop to create new song (mixes). (i guess there are a few drum fills.) Then there's the choice of samples, here theres a bunch of 90s/00s hip hop with 70s/80s pop. There are the mixes themselves, like when Gillis mixes notorious big with elton john's "tiny dancer" or mixing the "i love you" part of "silly love songs" against 2 live crew's chorus to "we want some pussy" (!). Some of those mixes are quite inspired. Then there's discussion as to the definition of songs, why they exist and if this would've simply've been best served as one long party jam a la prince's lovesexy. Then there's discussion as to liking this music is more being fond of the underlying samples and reminiscing on the underlying music, as opposed to attributing worth to the end result. Then there's dicussion about how much talent it takes to weave these jams. You don't need to know how to play an (traditional) instrument or sing. You need some good software, good talent for that software, and a very good ear. (i tried making my own mixes unsucessfully, inspired by girl talk -- it's not easy!) Is the sum of the parts a collage of the parts are a brand new whole? These are a lot of topics to wade through to determine how much i like this album compared to the "typical album". It's party music. It's time capsule music. It's a dj mix. It's an amalgam of different pop styles that create a new pop style/genre. But most of all it's fun, and in those rare times the mixes aren't that good, they're over in seconds. This is the music of the mp3 generation -- take that as you will.

From paladisiac TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/02/2011 21:02 | #31895 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This album is obviously, overtly pop. However, it's how he uses pop music which is so alien to most people. Girl Talk "mash up" 5 decades-worth of pop songs into each other to create something like dj mixes which are in some sense new songs themselves. Mostly a bunch of 90s/00s hip hop with 70s/80s pop, he mixes stuff like elton john with notorious b.i.g. and paul mccartney with 2 live crew. Some of this stuff is just hilarious and brilliant. Stuff like genesis, george benson, the pixies, kansas and billy squier rubbing up against lil wayne, dr. dre, m.i.a., jay-z and nelly. Crazy stuff really -- a fully-fledged idea that most people haven't been exposed to yet and would find bizarre.

From ERadio 05/25/2016 19:42 | #166855 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

He's got such a great ear for the mix... I love what's going on here. I saw him in a hole-in-the-wall joint after this album was released and I can tell you the live performance is where these songs were meant to be played.

From Hayden TOP 100 COMMENTER 03/16/2013 01:54 | #68517 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

AHH! That Biggie Vs. Elton John mash-up. Like, that's the best 100 seconds of this entire thing.