The first single from
Radio 4's very disappointing Stealing of a Nation is one of the songs that made the album the lackluster listen that it is. "Party Crashers" is a disco-fied track with funky programmed beats, live drums, angular guitars and yowling vocals sweetened with some house-y piano and synth washes. It aims to be a flag-waving dancefloor filler but ends up being a lot of shouting about nothing. The single includes the album version, an edited version and three remixes.
Ashley Beedle's "NY After Dark Vocal Mix" brings the house and techno aspects of the song to the fore, and adds some swooping strings and cuts the vocals up interestingly. Not interestingly enough to make the lyrics any less pedestrian but the mix is more successful than the original.
Headman gets two cracks at the song; the "Voc Remix" adds some synth squiggles, funky percussion, and gives the song some much needed urgency and imagination that the original lacks, the "Dub Remix" is pretty much the same as the "Voc Remix," just without the vocals on the verses, making it the best version of the song here. Also on the single is the non-album cut "Rise Up," a song that would have fit right in on the album. ~ Tim Sendra