Rating:
Genre:
Electronica
Release Date: 09/07/2004
Club Anthems, Vol. 1 doesn't leave much to your imagination. The high-energy
dance music featured here is about as imaginative as the title of the album itself -- in other words, rather faceless. As commonplace as the sound of these "
club anthems" may be, however, they're nonetheless what they're billed as. Give credit to the
Ultra Records assembly line for that, at least. Each of these inclusions dates from either 2003 or 2004, and each is indeed clubby and anthemic. Some -- like
Junior Jack's
"Da Hype," for instance -- are even full-fledged anthems in the sense that they'll be very familiar to a great many club-goers and
dance music aficionados. When you line up 17 tracks like this back to back, you get a mighty exuberant listening experience, one that'll make you feel like you're all vodka-and-Red Bulled up at a trendy metropolitan club in the middle of a neon-lit dancefloor at peak hour. Yup, that's the mood of this disc. So if you're looking for such indulgent listening, look no further. This one is full of certified
club anthems, and it's mixed fairly well by
Denny Tsettos, a certified
club DJ. That makes
Club Anthems the real deal, even if it is unimaginative. Then again, it's not
totally unimaginative. The one especially big anthem here -- the aforementioned
Junior Jack dancefloor-filler,
"Da Hype" -- is topped off by a
Robert Smith (of
the Cure)
a cappella, which is a surprise addition. Another particularly novel highlight is the
Oscar G remix of
Ultra Naté's
"Free." The original is a classic in every sense of the word, one of the best tracks to come out of the early-'90s New York
house scene centered on the once mighty
Strictly Rhythm label. This remix is somewhat superfluous (why not just spin the original?), but it's nonetheless one of the standout moments here on this otherwise straightforward mix disc of solidly contemporary
dance music.
~Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
;)
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