It started as a Kickstarter joke, but there now exists in this world a remix album cobbled together with adorable cat sounds.
Run the Jewels' 2014 critically acclaimed sequel to their debut is not completely cat-ified here (as some fans hoped/expected), but there are enough feline samples (and playful kitty lyrics) to sate fans with a sense of humor. Meow the Jewels is a fuzzed-out, madcap, woozy reimagination of an otherwise thrilling banger of an album. Including remixes by an impressive roster of the new and the legendary (
El-P,
Just Blaze,
Zola Jesus,
Prince Paul,
Geoff Barrow,
Boots,
Blood Diamonds,
Dan the Automator, and
3D of
Massive Attack), Meow is also injected with a little extra humor by ostensible enemy of cats,
Snoop Dogg, and famous Internet cutie Lil Bub.
Killer Mike and
El-P's raps remain aggressive, but the sometimes sludgy remixes drag the energy down, most glaringly on the previously exhilarating
Zach de la Rocha explosion "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)," which is chopped and screwed with hilarious cat meowing. It's very different and quite generous of the duo to humor their fans, but Meow may only speak to
RTJ lovers and cat people. Whereas the original
Run the Jewels 2 was a perfect soundtrack for a night of mayhem, Meow the Jewels is the comedown after all that rabble-rousing. ~ Neil Z. Yeung