A&F Playlists

I spent a few hours and listened to some of the spring 2010 playlist for Abercrombie & Fitch. Here are 10 random song reviews.

Lady GaGa - 'Bad Romance' (Bimbo Jones Radio Mix)

I am not much of a Lady GaGa fan. In fact most of the time I prefer dance remixes and this is no exception. This is way better than the original version, which hurts my ears every time. It finally sounds like it should!

Rating: 4/5

Billie Myers - 'Wonderful' (Barry Harris Saturday Night Club Mix)

I listened to the full (DJ) version of this song (16 minutes). It has an okay intro, of course you would not hear this in the club but even so it is good there. Once the lyrics kick in it is great. Great vocalist (no idea who she is). The lyrics are a tiny bit repetitive but very catchy. This remix has a bit of a cowbell loop during the 'chorus' (part between verses). There is a breakdown that A&F probably does not play at the store because it really slows the song down a lot. The song goes about 2/3 the speed then speeds back up. Overall kind of cool, then with some (as usual) kick rolls we are back in the song.

This song is not generic trance or house, but this song definitely does not have me jumping out of my chair ready to do a dance-off. A tad bit too slow for me.

Rating: 3.5/5

Almighty - 'One Love' (Almighty Anthem Radio Edit)

I am a huge fan of Almighty music in general. They generally do covers of tons of pop songs (and unfortunately most of their music on iTunes is only licensed for the UK, so sorry US visitors).

This song is not their best but good enough if you just need a dance track to listen to on the go, which is exactly how I picture this in personal use. Maybe a driving tune, but it will be close to last on the playlist if anywhere at all. Catchy lyrics if you really memorise them (otherwise this is a song where everyone will think they know lyrics until they get to try it on karaoke).

Rating: 3/5

Alphabeat - 'The Right Thing' (Album Version)

Cool vocal auto-tune tricks going on in this song. I am usually anti-male vocalist, but not in this case. The effects applied make me not hate it. Standard disco/electro-sounding beat, very Abercrombie-ish and I perfectly see how this went onto the playlist. In general a decent song worth listening to at least once, but I could picture myself letting this come on shuffle many times.

Rating: 4/5

Barry Harris & Simone Denny - 'Drama Queen' (Barry Harris Radio Edit)

Again, full song (10 minutes approximately). Typical house beat with a loop to differentiate it just slightly from all the other house songs out there. Does not catch my attention right away at all. The vocalist spells out Drama Queen during the song. Very in the now with the 'Don't even bother texting me back' vocal sample, which is kind of funny. And there are even more texting references in the song lyrics. This has that Abercrombie-ish beat that I remember from the majority of songs that are always selected there. The beat has a simple formula. Here is one bar:

Kick     Kick      Kick     Kick
     Hat      Hat       Hat      Hat
       TickTick                 TickTick

So, picture each Kick is 1 quarter note. The hats are on each 8th note. The first tick is on the 16th note before the 4th quarter note in the bar, and the second tick is on the last 8th before the end of the bar. This is definitely what DMX looks for in almost every song they pick.

Overall, nothing special. And the vocals are not particularly great either.

Rating: 2.5/5

Barry Manilow - 'I'd Really Love to See You Tonight' (Tony Moran Dance Mix)

Another Latin-flavour house song. Slower than typical house beat, and those typical guitar-sounding synths. Plenty of that in this song. Lyrics are the song as one would expect: it is a remix. Of course I cannot be sure if it really is Barry Manilow. Overall, I am not a fan of the original song and this is not changing my mind. Would not want to listen to this again.

Rating: 2/5

Carol Hahn - 'Into the Night' (Loverush! UK Radio Edit)

Because of the kind of 80's sound to this song, this song is already getting at least 3 points. It is as cool as the remix that A&F played of 'Do You Want Me', which was great. Lyrics are good and the beat is a bit electro-ish. Very little housy or trancy elements. I would definitely listen to this song multiple times. The full version is 15 minutes.

Rating: 4/5

Deborah Cox - 'Nobody's Supposed to Be Here' (Hex Hector's Club Mix)

It is great A&F has Deborah Cox back after the great song 'Something Happened on the Way to Heaven' (yes, a cover of Phil Colin's song). That was a definite 5/5. The original song 'Nobody's Supposed to Be Here' is a classic R&B song and is probably Deborah Cox's best song ever in terms of the charts (although my personal favourite is 'Absolutely Not'). This remix is great. I always enjoy a Hex Hector remix. This one is a great one. I absolutely love the breakdown. Simply amazing. And no-one (not even Christina Aguilera) can beat Deborah Cox's voice.

Rating: 4.5/5

Deja Vu (feat Tasmin) - 'You Raise Me Up' (12" Anthem Mix)

Great remix, great cover. I only have a 45 second sample of this song. So I cannot be sure 100% on how good it is, but just based on that, it is pretty easy to rate.

Rating: 4/5

Kristine W - 'The Power of Music' (Wideboys Stadium Club Mix)

Very good remix. I always love Kristine W regardless. Passes as house moreso than trance but could easily be mixed in most vocal trance mix sets. A little bit of electro-sounding, and those trance sweeps combined. Along with many parts where there are kicks with no other piece (such as a snare of clap). Overall, this blasting at 80 dB (the company policy) must sound amazing. I will visit a store just for this sometime.

Rating: 4.5/5

The rest is all pretty good too. Have a look at the list for February 2010.