The Rosebuds

<i>Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep (Night of the Furies Remixed)</i>

BY Cam LindsayPublished Apr 21, 2008

Remix albums are the perfect giveaway. They’re never solid from top to bottom, most of the time they give one or two singles extra attention, and let's face it: no one ever really wants to part with their Benjamins to get one. I like what Merge Records was thinking then when it commissioned an album of remixes for arguably the most deserving artist on the label.

Last year’s 180 by the Rosebuds found the duo primed and ready for the dance floor with their third album, Night of the Furies. Looking to shake things up, they left behind their bittersweet indie pop for… well, more bittersweet indie pop backed by a beat straight out of the UK’s Second Summer of Love in 1988.

Titled Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep (Night of the Furies Remixed), the album is indeed a hit and miss affair, which may or may not be because the band chose some unlikely candidates in restructuring their tunes. But we tend to expect these things, and the best bits come in renditions that strip Furies of its club energy.

For instance, Mac McCaughan as Portastatic gives the somewhat low-key "Silence By the Lakeside” some Latin guitar flavour; Wes Phillips strips hi-energy of "My Punishment For Fighting” and replaces it with moments of silence, musicbox synth and dramatic glitch; and the Cure’s Roger O’Donnell brings a playful, er, Cure-like vibe to the already ominous "I Better Run” — the second version tacked on at the end as a bonus cut.

Lucky for me, the album’s best moment comes in the track Merge is currently streaming in full: Bon Iver’s lush version of album banger "Get Up Get Out.” Justin Vernon redirects the vibrancy of the original into one of his own moody pieces, coating the piano in reverb, throwing in speech samples, hushed guitars and most effectively, his own inimitable falsetto, ringing that high register at all the right moments. Dude sounds like a pro!

Click here to download Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep (Night of the Furies Remixed). The album’s also up streaming 30 seconds of each song to give you a taste of each track.

The Rosebuds "Get Up Get Out” (Justin Vernon of Bon Iver Remix)

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