Lights

The Ice Pack EP

[2.5/5]



You have to be extremely infatuated with a song to purchase an EP that contains seven versions of it. Sure, music fans often stick the same track on repeat for a few days (or weeks), trying to hear everything there is to hear and searching for just why that particular number is so infectious. It’s one of the reasons people still listen to the radio. So if, for you, that song is “Ice” by Canadian synth-pop artist Lights, whose debut album The Listening dropped this past October, it’s your lucky day. The Ice Pack is six remixes of “Ice” plus the original, giving you almost 30 minutes of uninterrupted time with the exact same song.



Here’s the thing, though: Most of the remixes don’t really sound all that different from each other. It would take a producer or a professional DJ to discern exactly what the remixers–including K-os, Colin Munroe and Renholder (the guy who remixed a bunch of Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle tracks)–are doing to change this song. The best one is by U.K. band Modernaire, who slow “Ice” down into a shoegazing, moody track that re-imagines Lights as a hipster new-wave revival act. Rancid’s Tim Armstrong also throws in his collaborative take with John Morrical (as DJ Deadman and Tex), bumping up the song’s energy and infusing it with his punk rock, hand-clapping flair.



Do you really need all seven versions? No. But when the remixes aren’t blending together, it’s interesting to hear each producer’s unique take on a song that was only pretty good to begin with. (WARNER BROS.) Emily Zemler



GO DOWNLOAD: “Ice (Modernaire Remix)”