If you need any further proof that hip-hop has become the driving influence in the music world, witness the mixtape. Full of skits, goofy larks, collaborations and experiments, mixtapes were once strictly the province of rap artists, a way of getting their music heard while remaining unencumbered by the strictures of publishing fees, copyright laws and sample clearances. Over the past few years, though, mixtapes have started popping up on the rock landscape, perhaps most notably with Fall Out Boy’s 2008 Welcome To The New Administration.  Now it’s Arizona rockers Anarbor’s turn to put their own stamp on The Mixtape. 

The highlights are frontloaded. The set opens with “Contagious,” originally found on the band’s album,The Words You Don’t Swallow, and here featuring guest vocals by Ryan Hunter (North Korea, ex-Envy On The Coast) and Sierra Kusterbeck (VersaEmerge). Kusterbeck’s banshee wail steals the scene, breathing new life into an already-rock solid track. It’s followed by a “rock remix” of Mike Posner’s 2010 hit “Cooler Than Me” that’s more cover than remix, with frontman/bassist Slade Echeverria taking center stage, his loping bassline and rangy vocals leading the charge flanked by power-riffing from guitarists Adam Juwig and Mike Kitlas and a swinging stomp by drummer Greg Garrity.

In Anarbor’s capable hands, the dance-pop of La Roux’s “Bulletproof” turns into a full-on pop-punk rave-up, all vocal harmonies and gang chants. It’s such a complete transformation that the song is almost done in by the remaining bit of the original, Elly Jackson’s chorus vocal.  Speaking of transformations, the raging dubstep of “I Do What I Do (Will McCoy Remix)” bears an uncanny sonic resemblance to Skrillex’s epic run-through-the-paper-shredder deconstruction of Benni Benassi’s “Cinema,” and hell, if you’re gonna sound like someone else right now, it would be hard to pick a hotter (or more talented) property than Sonny Moore.  

Not all the gimmicks really work. Echeverria pulls off some impressive vocal mimicry of Rivers Cuomo on their cover of “Hash Pipe,” but the track hews so close to the original that you might as well just pop on the Green Album and listen to Weezer play it.  “Call From Manager (Skit)” is a joke that’s been played out one too many times, and it’s usually done funnier. And the acoustic and remixed versions of “Let The Games Begin”— available as a bonus tweet-for-a-track— are enjoyable but inessential as is the set’s only original track, “Fast, Cheap and Out Of Control.”

Still, for a free release, The Mixtape is more than just a toss-off. In an age where music’s value is measured not in monetary cost but in opportunity cost, Anarbor have made something worth your valuable listening time.  Really, what more can you ask for?

***/*****

*This review was composed by Jesse Richman