I’ve got mixed feelings about this set. Of course, based on the thematic concept, that makes sense and really fits. This is a double disc set of two EPs. The first EP is made up of original songs by Stacie Rose. The music on that disc is catchy rock with a big nod to classic rock. The second disc includes remixes of a bunch of Rose’s songs. At times this works. Even when it does, though, it really showcases the problem with the whole dance music trend. There is little actual music there, but rather a bunch of production trickery and fluff arranged to get people to dance. Sure, it’s catchy, but you have to wonder how an actual musician, like Rose gets talked into letting people turn their music into pop dribble like that. Some of it is terrible. Some of it is quite listenable. None of it is music. “Death to dance mixes and the talentless producers that create them,” I say. How’s that for a stand? While that disc is largely a throw away one, the first CD is strong enough to make this worth having.

If it was a record label that pushed Rose into the second CD of the project, I hope she gets a real deal with a real label for next time around. That was a terrible idea and she’s a much better artist than to have to put up with something that cheesy. Although, the two discs, as a package, show off the contrast between real music and the garbage that’s being pushed on the radio as music. One has substance. The other does not. One is worth listening to and pushing. The other is worth throwing in the waste basket or publicizing as what’s wrong with popular music today.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2011  Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.