This week's free album

So it seems like every other week, a major album gets released on the internet under a pay-what-you-feel-like donation system. Half of the time, it's just Trent Reznor, newly free from the constraints of a record label and gleefully wanking out albums, side projects and experiments like he was Ani Difranco in the 90s, but just yesterday, Girl Talk released the follow up to his fabulous mash-up/sound collage album Night Ripper (you can download it here.

Part of me wonders what his motivation was for putting out an album like this, whether it out of necessity or ingenuity. Even though Greg Gillis hasn't had any legal trouble over his previous albums, barely anyone knew who he was when they were released and now that he's headlining festivals, a few labels might be watching him to see if they could bleed him for some dough. That's kind of a long shot though, but it kind of isn't. I wonder if releasing the album for free/donation might clear him from responsibility. Gillis has already stated that he's going to be releasing a physical copy of the album in the next few months, so maybe this just counts as a soft release.

but the truth is, in 2008, Girl Talk is going to have to do a lot to differentiate himself from everyone. The internet is cluttered with mixtapes and muxtapes. Last week, the Hood Internet unveiled a "The Hood Internet Vs. Chicago" a well executed mix with a genius concept of mashing together Chicago bred rappers, rockers and DJs. On top of all that, we're only a couple months away from Flosstradamus' long awaited, loooooooong delayed official debut, and judging by some of their previous mixes, they might very well be able to out-Girl Talk Girl Talk.

On first listen, I didn't think Feed the Animals was as good as the anthemic Night Ripper but on a second listen it's starting to grow on me. Highlights include a segment of "Here's the Thing" where ? and the Mysterian's 96 Tears mixes into Kelly Clarkson's Since You've Been Gone which mixes in and out of Nine Inch Nails' March of the Pigs, and "Here's the Thing" which opens with a three-way mash of Dude 'N Nem's Watch My Feet,Pink's U + Ur Hand, and Underworld's "Born Slippy" (until I looked it up on wikipedia, I thought [gleefully] that it was Orbital's Halcyon (On and On))and closes with another one between Soulja Boy's Crank That (Soulja Boy), Ready for the World's Oh Sheila and Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak.