Girl Talk

Girl Talk’s detractors are always bemoaning the seeming pointlessness of attending one of his infamously high-energy concerts, citing the live Girl Talk sound as indistinguishable from that of his albums. Speaking from experience, I can say that such criticism is reasonably well founded. But luckily, the inverse of this purported drawback is also true. Girl Talk’s “studio” albums (though the term “studio” implies the presence of session musicians, which play no part in auteur Gregg Gillis’s process) pack the same infectiously danceable punch that his performances do. His online-distributed June album, “Feed the Animals,” is no exception.

Within the context of Girl Talk’s mashups, no songs or artists are out of bounds. On “In Step,” Nirvana’s gothic “Lithium” becomes the backdrop to an upbeat jump rope chant, and though Fleetwood Mac wouldn’t top many dance floor set lists, there they are, at the top of “Let Me See You,” blended seamlessly into Trina’s “I Got a Thang For You.” As on previous Girl Talk albums, there are still plenty of satisfying “ah-ha!” moments when obscured bass lines or vocal tracks suddenly emerge in full force, allowing the listener to identify them and marvel at their complete transformation.

“Feed the Animals” is more hyperactive than Girl Talk’s previous album “Night Ripper,” with songs darting from genre to genre and rarely lingering long on any one loop. Though this hyperactivity may overwhelm at points, Girl Talk’s redistribution of guilty pleasures, classic rock favorites, and club standards can also be exhilarating during crucial moments like the end to “Set it Off,” when he races from Mary J. Blige’s “Real Love” to “The Message” to “C’mon Eileen” in under a minute. “Feed the Animals” is also Girl Talk’s most ironic album so far—packed to the gills with the paradoxical pairings we’ve come to expect and doubling “Night Ripper’s” dose of kitschy songs from artists like Chicago and Hot Chocolate. Gillis’s inclusion of more non-hip-hop songs can become almost nostalgic, as when he gleefully sprinkles in 90s indulgences like The Cranberries and Sinead O’Connor over more pop and lockable beats.

The continued success of Girl Talk’s boundless, ADD-addled music is emblematic of a few cultural trends I certainly won’t be the first to mention. There’s the rise of click-happy fans whose fingers linger over the advance buttons of their ipods, the death of hard-and-fast genres, and the increasingly abbreviated nature of the musical product, from albums, to singles, to ringtones, to Girl Talk’s potpourri of 30-second hooks. Whether Gillis’s latest album (or any of his albums) is truly new and meaningful or just a well-mixed iTunes party shuffle will likely remain a topic of some hipster debate. Harvard students will have the opportunity to udge for themselves when Girl Talk plays the Harvard-Yale pep rally this November.

—Staff writer Nayeli E. Rodriguez can be reached at nrodrig@fas.harvard.edu.