The Top 20 Albums of 2010 #3 Girl Talk: All Day

The Top 20 Albums of 2010

#3 Girl Talk: All Day

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: Welcome! You've joined us just two places away from the Album of the Year. Each day I'm reviewing my favourite records out of the 81+ or so I listened to from 2010. You can read the other analyses here.

All Day is freely downloadable here, from the artists' own record label. Do me a favour and check it out? It'll help you understand the next paragraph! Seriously, please, go to the Illegal Art (in name only, don't worry) website and check it out for yourself: http://illegal-art.net/allday/

Right, now we're all set for some discussion on my third favourite album of 2010. Let's begin - just like the record itself - with the opening roar of Black Sabbath's War Pigs. Within a few beats, Jay-Z announces, "Hit Me." Ozzy Osbourne starts singing, then Ludacris' Move Bitch takes over. A minute or so later The Ramones' Blitzkrieg Pop is competing for your attention with Missy Elliot's Get Your Freak On. By the end of the track we're suitably prepared to get Jay-Z asking for a "fuck you" over the top of, all things, General Public's Tenderness. These are just a few of the hundreds of samples were used in the making of this album. Fast Company made an infographic to help explain it all, and I've got a screenshot of their work below. Click it to see a bigger version, and you'll get a feel for how densely mixed together this record is:

That's right, Girl Talk (AKA Gregg Gillis) is back, and he's on fine form as ever. In fact, I'd argue, he's on the best form he's ever been. Of all the records in my 'Top 20' for 2010, his is the album that has grown me on the most significantly. Don't get me wrong, I knew it was genius from the moment I pressed play, but it was a bit of a shock to me that he'd changed his 'format' this significantly. If this is the first time you've ever heard of Girl Talk though, I might have to restrain myself from getting a bit cerebral too quickly though. Humour me by watching this video below, so we can debate the intricacies of his approach to music? I dare you to be unimpressed by what he can achieve in 5 minutes, while his girlfriend's asleep...

...dunno if you watched that at all, but this guy is a seriously smart cookie. It's been a few years since I started listening to his stuff, but our 'creator-listener' relationship got serious when I saw the documentary RiP : A Remix Manifesto. That film debated the wrongs of copyright law and made a compelling case for fair-use of samples. It also showed to me that it's still possible to 'make it' big in the music business whilst holding down a day-job in the tech industry. One can dream, right? The most important thing it taught me was that Girl Talk knew what he was doing, and that none of this is accidental for him.

So, approaching my first listen of All Day, it's fair to say I had some baggage. I was convinced this would be a masterpiece so heavily laden with samples from obscure pop songs that my mind would implode in on itself trying to make sense of it. It would be a hipster-masterpiece that made my geeky friends high-five each other because they could pick out each and every track he referenced.

But that did not happen, and I'm glad that's the case. Instead, I found myself marvelling at its freshness, wondering how such a finicikity genius could come up with something that sounded so off-the-cuff. This was music for the people, by the people. Anorak-wearers need not apply, because the hoody and Converse-wearing geneartion have this album well covered. This felt like one of his near-mythical shows, where everyone in the audience is left drenched with sweat and good vibes thanks to one seamless mashup after another. This felt like something fun, able to be put on at any party and rock the roof off.

Once I'd got over my own preconceptions, I learned that this relationship was not one of 'creator-listener' at all. In fact, this was far more symbiotic (appropriate enough, given Gillis' previous line of work as a bio-engineer) than I realised. Girl Talk, first and foremost, is an Entertainer. We, his audience, are the Gloriously Entertained. This realisation was the gift that kept on giving for me while listening to All Day. I can play it at work and have the day's mood lifted in an instant. I can put it on in the car and find my pedal goes straight to the metal. When it's played while cooking, I'm a whirling devil of a chef, including my own dance moves like The Onion Slice And Dice (which looks significantly sillier when one is not actually chopping an onion...) in the preparation of the evening's dish.

This is my musical caffeine for 2010. Go get it now, while you can from here: http://illegal-art.net/allday/

Tune in tomorrow for the second-to-last review of 2010's top albums. It's a pop record by a woman who comes from Australia!