There are DJs, and then there’s Girl Talk. The man behind the moniker, Gregg Gillis, ascended to the level of indie mash-up deity with his last two albums, Night Ripper(2006) and Feed the Animals(2008). His latest offering, All Day, simply reaffirms what we already knew: Gillis is a musical mad scientist. What starts off as a collection of pop songs that span from the iconic to the all-but-forgotten ends up a Frankenstein’s monster that, rather than lurching and stumbling, rips off its shirt and dances itself blind.
The beauty of Girl Talk is the way he layers disparate songs so seamlessly and effortlessly that you’re left wondering why you never noticed that Pitbull’s “Hotel Room Service” synchs up perfectly with the riff from Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough.” He makes it OK to enjoy “Party in the U.S.A.,” because it sounds so badass when paired with M.O.P.’s “Ante Up.”
Of course, the formula is more complex than just popular hip-hop lyrics + catchy guitar hook = Girl Talk track. Gillis is nothing if not meticulous, accenting songs with the barest scrap of a melody, just long enough for it to register before it’s gone. On “This is the Remix,” the guitar refrain from the Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones” surfaces for just a few seconds, transitioning neatly into the riff from INXS’s “Need You Tonight.”
All Day is both a cohesive album and a retrospective of pop music from the last five decades. In each masterful mash-up, you’re given the luxury of hearing your favorite songs in a whole new way, filtered through the mind of a madman with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture. And that’s the brilliance of Girl Talk: In listening to his work, we’re given the chance to once again hear our favorite songs for the very first time.
