{"id":634,"date":"2014-09-16T22:51:04","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T22:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/?p=634"},"modified":"2014-09-16T22:51:04","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T22:51:04","slug":"mandisas-get-up-album-needs-caffeine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/09\/mandisas-get-up-album-needs-caffeine.html","title":{"rendered":"Mandisa\u2019s \u201cGet Up\u201d Album Needs Caffeine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mandisa's<\/a>
Mandisa’s “Get Up: The Remixes” released on September 16, 2014.\u00a0(Sparrow Records)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amy Grant\u2019s remix album, \u201cIn Motion: The Remixes,\u201d has done remarkably well considering that Grant is not known for dance music. The techniques used kept most of the music true to its original form but added a dance beat and sped up the music for a whole new sound.<\/p>\n

Today Mandisa releases her own dance album: \u201cGet Up: The Remixes,\u201d and ironically, the crew behind the music did just the opposite, which is odd.\u00a0 The album features some of the singer\u2019s more famous songs that have been tweaked and in some cases, slowed down. Neon Feather, who worked on \u201cBack to You\u201d, said on his Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

page, \u201cWell this is a little different for me\u2026 I did a remix for Mandisa. The slower tempo was refreshing to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, if you\u2019ve seen Mandisa in concert lately, you know how committed she is to the Zumba fitness program. That girl likes to move. A good portion of her music is toe-tapping to the extreme. The idea of creating a remix album seems like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the results are rather disappointing. The care that went into making Amy\u2019s album great is missing here. Perhaps the project was rushed.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem with the album is that songs that are already dance-friendly are actually slowed down here. Mandisa\u2019s huge hit, \u201cOvercomer\u201d starts the album off on the wrong foot. While the verses build the momentum of the song to the chorus like the original version, but when the chorus arrives, it just falls flat. In addition, the song is filled with annoying effects meant to enhance the song, but instead they just distract and annoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoy Unspeakable\u201d starts off well and then slows down to a crawl during its chorus and \u201cGood Morning\u201d sounds like Mandisa is in need of some coffee. Fortunately, some of the new treatments do work including the super-fast \u201cShackles,\u201d \u201cOnly the World\u201d and \u201cPress On\u201d the best song on the whole album hands down. In fact, the album sounds a lot better when you reverse the order of the songs.<\/p>\n

To be fair, music is subjective. What one person loves about a song, another will hate and vice-versa. In my own opinion, the only reason to do a remix of a song is to create a new sound that is equal or better than the original. Otherwise, if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t remix it. Here is the complete list of tracks on the album:<\/p>\n