Trying To Decide

Shontelle “T-Shirt (Crazy Cousinz Extended Mix)”

The original mix of Shontelle’s single “T-Shirt” is pleasant but generic, basically the kind of song that provides either a functional sort of pleasure, or a neutral non-response when heard in passing. This largely comes down to the way it seems designed to sound like a half-dozen overly familiar pop hits from the past few years, resulting in something that comes off, at best, as being a severely watered-down version of Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable.” Crazy Cousinz’ mix salvages the best elements from the original, and changes the mood, tempo, and arrangement significantly by flipping the ho-hum melancholy of the source material into a rather celebratory Latin-tinged dance number. Their arrangement is a funky, dynamic piece of music that evokes a powerful feeling of joy while at the same time feeling slick, cool, and relaxed. This is a wonderful example of the remix as aesthetic surgery — one can imagine the original song limping and wheezing its way into the OR, and just hours later prancing around cheerfully to its new and improved beat.

Buy it from Amazon UK.