Here is part two of the list, la creme de la creme, my Top 15 Mashups of 2013:
Shorse. Wait, what?
15. Imagine Dragons x Band of Horses – Radioactive Funeral (The White Panda)
Anything that uses Band of Horses’ “The Funeral” pretty much has me from the jump.
14. Blackstreet x Maroon 5 x Gorillaz – One More Diggity (Lobsterdust)
13. Queen x Swedish House Mafia – Don’t You Worry Child The Show Must Go On
12. The Beatles x Notorious B.I.G. x Gramatik – Don’t Let Me Down Biggie (The Melker Project)
You can’t really go wrong if you throw The Beatles into a mashup now can you.
11. Drake x Kavinsky x Lil Wayne – Mottovision (The Hood Internet)
Slightly prefer this version to the Kanye/Kavinsky/Carlos Serrano version. Both are really good mixes.
Frat. Sorry, come again?
We’re getting into heavy hitter territory now…
10. Kanye West x Tame Impala – Black Skinhead Elephant (Nate Belasco)
This works wonderfully. Grimy rock vibe.
9. The Black Keys x Nas x Jay-Z x Mos Def x Notorious B.I.G. – Little Black Submarines (Voodoo Farm)
Phenomenal mix.
8. Chvrches x Taylor Swift x Lana Del Rey x Monsieur Adi – Stay (DJ Topsider)
Love this laid back mix of some mega-sized pop tunes.
7. Disturbed x Of Monsters and Men – Little Sickness (Isosine)
Isosine is a bad, bad man. This is a tonne of fun.
6. Miley Cyrus x Mumford and Sons – Little Wrecking Ball (Isosine)
Isosine’s biggest hit of 2013, and quite possibly, the most popular mashup, by anyone, this year. Cool video too. Much deserved respect for the complete audio-visual effort.
Puguin. Not that kind of mashup homeboy.
5. Anna Kendrick Lamar x Drake x Florence & The Machine – Poetic (Isosine)
Florence & The Machine’s “Never Let Me Go” works wonders as the baseline, while Anna Kendrick Lamar and Drake put it down on vocals.
4. Jay-Z x Fleetwood Mac – Feelin’ The Landslide (The Melker Project)
My favourite effort from The Melker Project. Hov sounds majestic rapping over “Landslide”.
And here are the three mashups that, for me, stood above the rest in 2013:
3. Ellie Goulding x Red Hot Chili Peppers x The Lumineers x Kendrick Lamar – Firefly (The White Panda)
The Lumineers add a nice intro, but the track really blows up at the 30 second mark, when a perfectly synced, spectacularly realized mixture of “F**kin Problems” (the baseline), the riff from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Snow” (the rhythm), and the vocal from Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Could Happen” come together in blissful harmony. Everything fits — brilliantly. I could listen to this for hours.
2. Rihanna vs. Game of Thrones – Diamond Thrones (The White Panda)
This mashup’s testament: I’ve never watched Game of Thrones, I’m not familiar with its theme, and still this tune floors me. Rihanna’s vocal from “Diamonds” feels downright menacing over the Game Of Thrones’ theme. This mashup reveals a maturity to “Diamonds” that I hadn’t heard/considered before. It makes me want to binge watch Game of Thrones this instant. It make me wonder if Rihanna will make an appearance. What a feat. The White Panda was on fire in 2013.
1. Adele vs. Linkin Park – Set Fire To The End (Pulga edit)
Wow. In a bizarro world, this mashup would be a chart-topping smash. Hell, if this were a “new” track in this world, at this time, I think it’d be a massive success. Adele’s vocal from “Set Fire To The Rain” is mixed perfectly — perfectly — with Linkin Park’s “The End”. The ebbs and flows are completely in sync. It really does seem like this vocal belongs with this music. I think Adele’s found her new musical direction. This mashup is so good it legitimately makes me wonder how she’d sound if she were to make a rock record. (It’d be brilliant.) For now though, we have this: a perfect mashup.
The Pun Is Sure 