Girl Talk

Feed the Animals (Illegal Art)

Girl Talk released Feed the Animals with a pay-what-you-will pricing model, but one should never underestimate the value of a time-tested hook, sick verse, or platinum beat, especially in the hands of the world’s pre-eminent mash-up maestro. Doling out more free samples than Sam’s Club on Sundays, Girl Talk’s copyright-challenging fourth LP cuts and pastes more than 300 song snippets into a seamless but fervently paced 54-minute aural collage of club bangers that’s every bit as enticing as his 2006 career-defining opus, Night Ripper, though it sounds more like a companion piece than a fresh body of work. From the iconic juxtaposition of Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” with Shawnna’s “Gettin’ Some” in opener “Play Your Part (Pt. 1)” to the dub treatment of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” in “Here’s the Thing,” there’s enough here to satisfy even the most ardent party animal’s appetite for destruction.

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This article appears in September 12 • 2008.

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