Album Review: The Singles by Free Blood

I guess it’d be wrong to ask whatever happened to 12” mixes (briefly: CD ‘maxi-singles’, shitty dance remixes, and the death of the single via MP3), but it’s still a striking and pleasant surprise to run into a band who seems capable of more than just remembering them fondly. “Never Hear Surf Music Again”, the casually epic lead-off track to Free Blood’s new singles compilation, plays to my ears like one of those old better-than-the-single 12” mixes that took a good song and made it great by stretching out the dance sections, adding in interesting digressions, and generally adding new levels of sonic interest to the song (via instrumentation or vocal performance or what have you). The best of those remixes were where pop smarts, dancefloor utility, and avant-garde tinges came together to meld harmoniously, and it’s to Free Blood’s immense credit that they manage to summon up that feeling on all six of the original songs here.

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