CD Reviews: Review of Whipped Cream & Other Delights Rewhipped Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass

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Click here to buy yourself a copy from Amazon.comBuy your copy from Amazon.com Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass:
Whipped Cream & Other Delights Rewhipped
starstarstarno starno star Label: Shout! Factory
Released: 2006
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Herb Alpert is 71 years old.

Whether you enjoyed his music during its heyday (and if you did, congratulations on being so computer-savvy) or, like my generation, first became aware of Alpert as Janet Jackson’s sunglassed foil for 1987’s “Diamonds,” this may be unexpected and sobering information. If Alpert, the apotheosis of cool sophistication, can tumble so speedily into old age, the rest of us are truly living on borrowed time.

Thankfully, we’ve got this nifty little remix disc to distract us from those deepening wrinkles in the mirror; what’s more, Alpert himself lends new trumpet solos to seven of the tracks. The end result is just as smooth and sweet as the titular dessert topping, and just as effortlessly hip as the original songs were in…oh my God, 1965?

That being said, it’s difficult to imagine the target audience for Re-Whipped; certainly, almost nobody who bought the original album when it came out will be interested in hearing what Mocean Worker or DJ Foosh can bring to the table, no matter how well they do it. Similarly, the young doofus hipsters who want to channel Alpert’s brand of cool have all probably got at least one Esquivel remix CD already, and if this isn’t the same, exactly, it’ll be close enough for young, iPod-damaged ears.

Which is sort of a shame, because each of these twelve tracks is generally handled with the right mix of respect and irreverence; these treatments are fresh enough to stand on their own, but never utterly divorced from the originals (like some of the stuff on, say, Motown Remixed).

Still, for what’s essentially a novelty record with limited appeal, it’s well-made, and won’t disappoint the few who pay the price of admission. If nothing else, it’s a treat to hear Alpert still sounding so remarkably vital.

~Jeff Giles