… a polyphonic prostitute …

When I recently rediscovered the art of the mash-up (via TheHypeMachine and some of the blogs linked from it) I thought that the best mash-ups were the ones that were based, solely or mostly, on songs I already knew. (Goldfrapp vs. ZZ Top! Green Day vs. the Timelords! Dire Straits vs. The Clash! and so on.) There's a lot of interesting stuff out there, though, and it'd be too limiting to restrict myself to old favourites.

Mind you, it's a slippery slope.

First of all I found myself listening to Gwen Stefani vs. the Soggy Bottom Boys (~6MB), an utterly splendid version of 'A Man of Constant Sorrow' from O Brother Where Art Thou, mixed with 'Hollaback Girl'.

Then Gwen vs. Sugar (~5MB). I'm a Sugar fan (saw 'em live back in the 90s, too) but not up to date with their more recent output. '(Tell me) What You Waiting For' mixes two songs I didn't know. Aren't I brave.
Finally, I decided to listen to some unadulterated Gwen Stefani.

I hated it.
The mashes are greater than the sum of their parts: they take the good parts — Stefani's voice, which has a nice timbre and occasionally reminds me of Kate Bush; competent pop beat and structure — of what's fairly tuneless, slightly rap-influenced pop, and mix it up with rock guitar / alt.country twang, and a bit of a tune. A good mash-up adds something new to a song I already like — 'A Man of Constant Sorrow', for example — but it can also induce me to listen to songs I'd never otherwise hear. And maybe one day I'll discover some new original thing I like …