Last month, when my friends Natalie and Beau got married, I made a couple of music requests at the wedding reception. The deejay, unfortunately, couldn’t fill any of them.
The first? Elbow’s “Mirrorball.” It’s one of my favorite songs of theirs, as it tells the romantic story of two souls finding one another. (I think it’s about Guy Garvey’s current relationship, come to think of it.)
The second? We’ll come back to that.
The third? “The Imperial March.” This was a wedding of two people plugged into geek culture, and there is a dance that goes along with “The Imperial March.” Instead, the main Star Wars theme was played, which confused the hell out of everyone.
But the second? Just for the sheer fun of it, I asked for some Jaydiohead. I didn’t care what. Just anything.
Jaydiohead is the mash-up of Radiohead and Jay-Z.
I’ve collected a couple of albums along similar lines. The Grey Album combines Jay-Z’s The Black Album with The Beatles’ “White Album.” Viva La Hova combines Jay-Z and Coldplay. It’s a whole genre of music, really — Jay-Z mash-ups.
The second Jaydiohead album, The Encore, just released. It’s an EP of five tracks.
It’s interesting to compare the three different Jay-Z mash-up projects, to see how different Jay-Z lyrics are combined with the Beatles or Coldplay or Radiohead, and the beats chosen produce completely different results. The textures are different. The emotional spaces are different.
My favorite Jaydiohead mash, by the way, is “Change Order” from the first Jaydiohead album, Minty Fresh Beats. It works on its own terms, as a song complete in and of itself, perhaps because more of Thom Yorke’s vocals are used, creating a back-and-forth between Jay-Z and Yorke.
Jaydiohead. I do quite like it. 🙂