Track Listing

1. Tarana - Khan, Ustad Sultan
2. Habanos Days - Damien (2)
3. This Is Not A Love Song - Nouvelle Vague
4. Beloved - Shankar, Anoushka
5. Who Needs Forever - Gilberto, Astrud
6. Desert - Simon, Emilie
7. Lemon Tree - Alpert, Herb
8. Originality - Thievery Corporation & Sister Nancy
9. In Love - Fear Of Pop
10. Girl's Insane - Januaries
11. Strange Days - Doors
12. Revolution Solution - Thievery Corporation
13. Shiva - Thievery Corporation
14. Khalghi Soup - Transglobal Underground
15. Angels - Wax Poetic & Norah Jones
16. Nothing To Lose - Antena, Isabelle
17. Cada Beijo - Gilberto, Bebel
18. Dirty Little Secret - McLachlan, Sarah

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14810 in Music
• Released on: 2006-05-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Import

Amazon.co.uk Review
The title of the latest Thievery Corporation album, Versions, speaks volumes about Eric Hilton and Rob Garza's approach to the art of the remix. Aside from their jazz and world influences, the Washington DC-based duo have borrowed liberally from the techniques of Jamaican dub practitioners like King Tubby and Lee Perry (who used to do dub versions of popular vocal records), especially with their remixes, which are known for their heavyweight basslines and slick chocolate riffs. Versions highlights a number of rare and hard-to-find TC remixes; seventeen in total, including a bonus collaboration track with legendary dancehall queen Sister Nancy. An impressive range of artists and songs are tackled here, from Sarah McLachlan and her "Dirty Little Secret" to Herb Albert's "Lemon Tree", the Doors' "Strange Days" and Nouvelle Vague's celebrated version of "This Is Not a Love Song". The tracks, though of a high calibre throughout, vary in their results. Some are nondescript, others are hit and miss, but enough of them - the blissed-out rendition of Ustad Sultan Khan's "Tarana", their lush reshaping of Astrud Gilberto's "Who Needs Forever" especiall--create enough deep grooves to ensure a sensual listening experience. --Paul Sullivan

Customer Reviews

Pleasing ... but ever so slightly dull
I bought this on the strength of TC's kooky but affecting mix of the Doors' "Strange Days" and the exquisite "Originality", a blistering burst of dubbed-out, horn-drenched reggae but nothing on the album comes close to said highlight. It has some excellent moments - their own "revolution solution", with Perry Farrell's shimmering vocals gliding over the surface, is a key moment - and TC are masters of soulful dubby basslines coupled with dope beats and expansive percussive arrangements. Ultimately though it's a bit of a yawn. Too many tracks which meander nicely but do little to excite. It's the kind of album that you'd think would be perfect for a post-club chillout experience but in fact if you did put it on in such an environment someone would probably change the CD very soon. The accompanying artwork is also pretty unnecessary.

Very good but it depends on what you want...
Thievery Corporation are very good... they can mix a song and, as most of these remixes show, almost any song, into something breathtakingly different and, when they're in the mood, they can produce their own stunningly innovative tracks. But above all, they know how to appeal to a market... which is, in this case, high quality "downbeat" music.

And, as with their "The Mirror Conspiracy" album, they know exactly where they're going here: laid-back, languid beats that are lifted out of the mire of "lift music" and put firmly into the "cerebral experience" category because the production and execution are, as with almost everything they do, excellent. Check out their stunningly beautiful reworks of "Who Needs Forever?" and "Dirty Little Secret", plus their clever and genuinely exciting version of The Doors "Strange Days" - all three of which are better than the originals - to see how good they can be. But, and here's the problem, they can, as albums like "DJ Kicks" and "The Cosmic Game" show, take things so much further.

So, it all depends on what you want. If it's something that breaks the boundaries then you're in the wrong place. But if it's something you can be genuinely "chilled" and "intrigued" by then you've found it.

Yet more top listening from the Washington duo
There is no new studio material here but don't hold that against them as the album is excellent all the same. The tracks they've chosen to remix range from a couple of their own to an upbeat Strange Days by The Doors and the gorgeous and haunting Dirty Little Secret by Sarah McLaughlin. All their usual influences are here; the north African, the south American and the heavy dub sounds. And there is real variation in the tracks they have chosen but the transition between sounds never jars.
Their most laid back album in long while. More sultry than The Outernational Sound, only time will tell if it becomes better liked than DJ Kicks...
I love it.