Summer Sessions 2007: Mixed By Seamus Haji, Dave Spoon & Chris Coco

Summer Sessions is a triple-disc compilation released by the Ministry of Sound label that serves up 60 tracks at a good value. While the summertime theme is rather arbitrary, more related to marketing than music, Summer Sessions has enough uptempo highlights on its first two discs to keep a beach party bumping and enough downtempo highlights on the third disc to keep a pool party chill. The first disc is oriented toward contemporary electronic dance hits, including material from Dizzee Rascal ("Bonkers"), Kid Cudi ("Day 'n' Night"), Deadmau5 ("Slip"), and Freemasons ("Love on My Mind"). The second disc is oriented toward a mix of electronic dance and urban favorites of yesteryear, including material from OutKast ("Hey Ya!"), DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince ("Summertime"), Basement Jaxx ("Bingo Bango"), and Fatboy Slim ("Gangster Tripping"). In contrast, the third disc is oriented toward a mix of contemporary and classic chillout music, including material by X-Press ("2 Lazy"), Röyksopp ("The Girl and the Robot"), Nalin & Kane ("Beachball"), and Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas ("Down"). As always with albums such as this, there are a lot of remixes on Summer Sessions, which can be frustrating at times; for instance, the version of Underworld's "Jumbo" compiled here is a remix, and while it's not necessarily bad, the original is preferable. ~ Jason Birchmeier|