Girl Talk, “All Day” (Illegal Art)
Greg Gillis, the affable mashup DJ known as Girl Talk, has never wanted for ingenuity. His music liberally swipes hip-hop verses from the past couple of decades and pastes them over some of the most recognizable pop and rock riffs in the English language, creating a playful, irresistible dance party soundtrack.
On “All Day,” his fifth album since 2002, the Pittsburgh artist has perfected the formula. Songs like “That’s Right” don’t just draw from a bewildering variety of sources (Peter Gabriel, Fat Joe, Spacehog, Foxy Brown, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus), they also feel oddly inevitable in their recasting of familiar sounds in a thrilling, frequently hilarious way.
It’s about more than just spotting the reference — though there’s a lot of that, too, given that the album stitches together samples from nearly 400 songs. It’s a deft acknowledgment of music’s fluid ownership in the digital age and the increasing ease with which technology allows us to reshape it for our own purposes. Download the album for free at . John Wenzel
Daft Punk, “Tron Legacy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” (Walt Disney Records)
When was the last time Hipster Nation was this excited about a Walt Disney Records release? It’s tough to say. But it’s likely that the indie- rock and electro fans who have made Daft Punk an amphitheater- and arena-filling band won’t love this surprisingly straightforward motion picture soundtrack as much as the hype would have dictated.
Instead of changing the soundtracks game, Daft Punk played by the rules to create a solid collection of orchestral, occasionally electronic compositions that will sound fine backing up the film and its players.
Fans expecting a rager of a soundtrack, a jampacked CD of hits along the lines of Daft Punk’s previous work — including “Around the World,” “One More Time” or “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” the latter of which fueled one of Kanye West’s biggest hits — will be disappointed. This is a soundtrack, not a dance record. The closest it gets to dance territory is the brief but punchy “Derezzed” and the blooming and melodic “Tron Legacy (End Titles).”Ricardo Baca
The Centennial, “Second Spring” (Self-released)
Promising Denver pop-rock group Meese went the way of so many major- label victims when it was dropped from Atlantic Records earlier this year, but that hasn’t stopped the family band. Brothers Patrick and Nathan Meese have re-formed as the Centennial, along with Patrick’s wife, Tiffany.
The group’s newfound fondness for slow, patient songwriting and ethereal male-female harmonies evokes Minnesota slowcore legends Low but retains the sparkling-sweet melodies that made Meese’s upbeat songs so addictive. Witness the spidery guitars winding through opener “1988,” or the new-wave synths swirling around finger-picked electric notes in the title track.
The syrupy “Kidnap” begs to be played over the end of a “One Tree Hill” episode, and “Free Man” comes off like the headphone epic Patrick has been threatening to write for years. It’s a tonal shift from the brothers’ previous band, sure, but this aptly titled EP proves that the sophisticated songwriting that nearly propelled Meese into the big time is a gloriously adaptable and resilient thing. You can download the EP for free at . John Wenzel
