Remix Album

A music album consisting entirely (or almost entirely) of remixes of previously released songs.

Typically they're remixes of a single artist's music: either a compilation of tunes from across their discography, or focusing on a single album. (If the latter, the remix may be packaged with the original as a Distinct Double Album.) Most commonly, they invite a whole bunch of guest musicians and remixers to reimagine the songs—but if the original musician has experience with producing and mixing music, they may handle the remixing themselves.

Another, less common, possibility is for a single remixer to compile their own remixes of other people's songs.

Compare and contrast with Cover Album. For our purposes, a cover version is a complete re-recording of the song, while a remix uses at least part of the original recording. See also The Not-Remix for remixes intended to improve the audio quality of the album without changing the substance of the original songs; usually these are called "Remasters".

---

Examples:

Single Album Remixes

• Architecture in Helsinki: We Died, They Remixed is a remixed version of In Case We Die.
• Beck: Guerolito, made up of remixes from Guero.
• Björk has several:
  • The Best Mixes from the Album Debut for All the People Who Don't Buy White Labels, as the title says, is collection of remixes from Debut.
  • Telegram collects remixes from Post.
  • Army of Me: Remixes and Cover collects 17 different remixes of the song "Army of Me".
  • Bastards collects remixes from Biophilia.
• bo en's Pale Machine 2 contains remixes of all the songs in Pale Machine, as well as "Money Won't Pay" and "I'll Fall" from the Expansion Pack rerelease.
• David Bowie:
  • Never Let Me Down 2018 is a completely revamped version of his much-maligned 1987 album Never Let Me Down, featuring a more organically-focused production style more in the vein of Bowie's typical oeuvre (compared to the very Eighties style of the original).
  • In November 2020, to commemmorate its 50th anniversary, The Man Who Sold the World was reissued under its Working Title Metrobolist. This release features new, substantially modified mixes of almost all the songs by original producer Tony Visconti; the sole exception is "After All", because Visconti feels he can't improve on the original mix.
• Chromatics' Faded Now is a remix album for Closer to Grey.
• Daft Punk: Daft Club contains remixes of songs from Discovery, and one song from Homework.
• Deftones' White Pony received an Updated Re-release for its 20th anniversary in 2020 with a companion album titled 'Black Stallion'', featuring remixes of the entire album (with the exception of "Back to School (Mini Maggit)" from the white cover re-release).
• Fear Factory: Remanufacture — Cloning Technology, a remix of Demanufacture.
• Franz Ferdinand's album Blood: Franz Ferdinand is all dub-inspired remixes of Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.
• The Front Bottoms have the "Grandmother Series" of EPs, Ann and Rose, which are re-recordings of songs from their now hard to find self-published albums.
• Frontline Assembly's Fallout features remixes of nine songs from Artificial Soldier, plus three new songs.
• Gorillaz: Laika Come Home, a dub and reggae style remix by Spacemonkeyz of the Gorillaz self titled album.
• Michael Jackson: Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix contains eight remixes of tracks from HIStory, plus five new songs.
• Jamiroquai:
  • 1999 Remixes is a compilation with 13 remixes of just three songs from the Synkronized album: the songs "Canned Heat", "Planet Home" and "Supersonic".
  • Different Sounds: The Remixes is an unofficial remix album made by fans which is a compilation of remixes of all Jamiroquai albums until 2002 (before Dynamite) from single releases (all of them B-sides).
• Joy Electric: Their Variables had guest artists remixing all the tracks from The Otherly Opus, plus two original songs.
• Linkin Park has two remix albums:
  • Reanimation, consisting of remixes of the entirity of Hybrid Theory plus B-side tracks "High Voltage" and "My December" as well as six interludes.
  • Recharged, a remix of almost all the tracks from Living Things, plus a collaboration single with the renowned DJ Steve Aoki and a remix of said song.
• Massive Attack: No Protection is a dub remix of their album Protection by Mad Professor, who gets an equal co-credit on it.
• mind.in.a.box:
  • Revelations was followed by the Revelations Club Mixes EP.
  • Black and White has the remix EP Shades of Gray, which also includes the previously unreleased song "Fire and Lace".
• My Brightest Diamond:
  • Tear It Down is remixes from Bring Me the Workhorse.
  • The four Shark Songs EPs are all remixes from A Thousand Shark's Teeth.
• There is even an official My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic remix album titled DJ Pon-3 Presents My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Remixed. It contains remixes of songs from the show which look like they've all been done by the same person. The album was a kind of reaction on the deluge of show music remixes from the fandom (including several albums mostly or completely made of show remixes).
• New Order: Complete Music, a remixed and extended version of Music Complete. Some tracks are just longer versions of the originals, while others sound significantly different.
• Nine Inch Nails:
  • Fixed EP consists of remixes from the Broken album.
  • Further Down the Spiral, a remix of The Downward Spiral featuring numerous guest contributors.
  • Things Falling Apart, a remix of The Fragile (1999).
  • Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D (Year Zero Remixed), a remix of Year Zero.
• The Notorious B.I.G.: Duets: The Final Chapter. The tracks are made from previous and/or unreleased recordings combined with verses from other rappers to form duets.
• Pink Guy: Pink Season: The Prophecy, an EP that consists of 4 remixes of tracks from the Pink Season mixtape plus one new song.
• Pizzicato Five:
  • Pizzicato Free Soul contains remixes from Sweet Pizzicato Five.
  • Happy End of You contains remixes from Happy End of the World. ^note Except for one song from Romantique 96
  • Remixes 2000 contains remixes from Pizzicato Five TM and its associated singles.
• Radiohead: The King of Limbs was remixed by the same musicians who inspired the style of this same album and the results were released on the eight TKOL RMX singles: the TKOL RMX 1234567 compilation regroups the first seven while the eighth remains a separated single.
• Saint Etienne had their debut Foxbase Alpha remixed (or as they put it, "re-produced") by Richard X to create Foxbase Beta.
• SOPHIE's album Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides was followed up with an Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides Non-Stop Remix Album. It's mostly what the title suggests it is, but while there is plenty of guest collaboration, it also features Sophie remixing several of her own songs, some to the extent that they're almost entirely new and original tracks altogether.
• Tupac Shakur:
  • Nu-Mixx Klazzics takes songs from All Eyez On Me and gives them new backing tracks and new guest vocals.
  • Nu-Mixx Klazzics 2 has a similar concept though it also includes songs from The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.
• UB40's Present Arms in Dub (1981) is a dub mix of Present Arms.
• Wire: The Drill consists entirely of remixes of one song, "The Drill", done by Wire themselves. Some are so thoroughly rearranged, they sound almost nothing like the original.
• Frank Zappa: When it came time to rerelease his back catalog on CD, he digitally remixed (and in some cases, partially rerecorded) several of the albums. Allegedly the new instrumental parts were in response to some of the original band members suing Zappa for unpaid royalties. For a while, these were the only versions available, but fan outcry eventually convinced Zappa records to rerelease the original mixes.
  • Cruising with Ruben & the Jets got new drums and bass tracks, in a very 80s New Wave Music style—which clashed with the Retraux Doo-wop style of the original. The original vinyl mix was eventually released on CD as Greasy Love Songs.
  • Hot Rats: The initial CD version used the same tapes as the vinyl version, but drastically changed the overall sound by bringing certain instruments to the forefront and burying others in the mix. And "The Gumbo Variations" somehow got four minutes longer.
  • Sleep Dirt, originally an instrumental album, had vocals by Thana Harris added for the CD version.
• TM Network released a 4-disc album filled with versions of "Get Wild", famous for its use in City Hunter, titled GET WILD SONG MAFIA. The first three discs cover various versions of the song released in the past and several live versions, with the last disc being a combination of remixes and covers. The album was acknowledged by Guinness World Records for "Most versions/remixes of one track on a top 100 CD album".
• Dua Lipa's Club Future Nostalgia, a compilation of dance remixes of tracks from Future Nostalgia.
• Autechre's Quaristice has two of these: the Versions disc included with the Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition, and the four-EP set collectively known as Quaristice Quadrange.ep.ae.
• Bronski Beat's Hundreds & Thousands compiles alternate mixes of the singles "Smalltown Boy" and "Why?" and the album tracks "Heatwave" and "Junk" from The Age of Consent, plus the previously promo-only tracks "Run From Love" and "Hard Rain". The cassette and CD editions add the 12" extended version of the "I Feel Love Medley"(featuring Marc Almond) and the B-sides "Infatuation/Memories", "Close To The Edge", and "Cadillac Car".
• Grimes has Miss Anthropocene (Rave Edition), consisting of all Techno remixes of songs from the album from the likes of Richie Hawtin, BloodPop, and Modoskeletor, among others.
• This is a tradition of HEALTH and their HEALTH::DISCO series. The Crystal Castles remix of HEALTH's song "Crimewave" was the song that put the former on the map.
• Alice Glass has a remix album of her self-titled EP.
• Kelela has these for Take Me Apart and Raven. There were remixes for the Hallucinogen EP, but they were included on the deluxe edition.
• 100 gecs' 100 gecs and The Tree of Clues is a star-studded remix album with each song containing one or more features. They also released the stems to the original album so fans could make their own remixes.

Single Artist Remix Compilations

• Afro Celt Sound System: Pod is a combination of older remixes by other musicians, and remixes that the Afro Celts themselves created specifically for this album.
• The Beatles: The soundtrack to The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil is made up of remixes of hits straight from the original studio material, supervised directly by original Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles.
• David Bowie: The 2018 Boxed Set Loving the Alien (1983-1988) includes an exclusive, finalized version of the scrapped compilation Dance, containing various 12" mixes of Bowie's material during his tenure on EMI America Records. As the original tracklist was put together in 1985, the released version modifies the set to focus on all three albums from the EMI America years (Let's Dance, Tonight, and Never Let Me Down), plus the singles Bowie recorded for Labyrinth.
• Mariah Carey: The Remixes, a Distinct Double Album with club mixes on disc 1 and hip hop mixes on disc 2.
• Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash Remixed, a tribute album with several artists remixing his songs.
• Miles Davis: Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969-1974. Bill Laswell re-edited and remixed several songs from Miles' fusion-era albums (which themselves had been heavily edited in the studio before release).
• The Enid: Arise and Shine.
• A Flock of Seagulls: Greatest Hits Remixed, released in 1999.
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood has Reload! Frankie: The Whole 12 Inches and The Club Mixes 2000, a mixture of new and old mixes and a compilation of (mostly) new remixes commissioned just for the album, respectively. There's also Bang! and Twelve Inches, though both include a couple of non-remix tracks.
• Information Society have InSoc Recombinant, which compiles remixes of select tracks from Information Society through Don't Be Afraid, mainly by industrial bands.
• Michael Jackson:
  • The Original Soul of Michael Jackson, consisting of 80s remixes of Jackson's late 60s-early 70s solo material.
  • The Stripped Mixes, consisting of stripped-down remixes of his Jackson 5 songs and very early solo career.
  • The Remix Suite was a series of EPs (later compiled as an album) with electronic remixes of Jackson's early career material.
• Jean-Michel Jarre jumped head-first into the dancefloor and remix craze of The '90s.
  • He had remixes made mostly from his already house-tinted 1993 album Chronologie. Enough of them were made not only for a couple of mostly promotional maxi singles (which pop up at record fairs nonetheless), but also to combine some of them (and some remixes of earlier material) into the remix album Jarremix. The original release had eleven tracks, but after one by Laurent Garnier was removed, it eventually ended with ten tracks.
  • Some four years later, Oxygène 7-13 brought even more remixes with itself, enough for even more promotional maxi singles and a second remix album titled Odyssey Through O2 which also came with a special copy of the ArKaos software named JArKaos so that people could generate their own dynamic visuals like at Jarre's recent concerts while listening to the remixes.
• L'arc-en-Ciel: Their special album P'UNK IS NOT DEAD is a compilation of punk remix versions of their own songs (where they pose as their alter ego "P'UNK EN CIEL").
• Limp Bizkit: New Old Songs.
• Madonna: You Can Dance remixes songs from her first three albums, plus one new song.
• Melvins' Chicken Switch, with the twist that they gave remixers entire albums to work with for their respective tracks on the remix album, rather than individual songs. Only one track, "Queen (Electroclash Remix)", is a remix of one specific song, with the rest mainly being noise/sound collage pieces that sample various Melvins songs.
• Harry Nilsson's 1971 Aerial Pandemonium Ballet is one of the earliest examples. After the success of his album The Point, the record label considered rereleasing Nilsson's out-of-print early albums Pandemonium Shadow Show and Aerial Ballet. Nilsson felt those albums sounded outdated, so he remixed them and combined them into a single album. "It is a matter of intense debate among Nilsson fans whether this was a good idea."
• New Order followed their Greatest Hits Album (the best of) NewOrder with the remix collection (the rest of) NewOrder). The vinyl edition contained all-new remixes, while the CD and cassette were expanded with a selection of previously released ones. A limited-edition version of the CD release tosses in a second disc dedicated entirely to remixes of "Blue Monday".
• Pendulum: The Reworks
• Pet Shop Boys:
  • Disco is a collection of extended dance mixes.
  • Disco 2 is another remix collection, this time arranged as a continuous megamix.
  • Disco 3 contains remixes and a handful of new songs.
• Soda Stereo (Argentenian band from The '80s) had Zona de Promesas, a remixed Greatest Hits Album with the Title Track as the only new song.
• Queen: Per the title, The 12" Collection (included as part of the 1992 Boxed Set Box of Tricks) brought together various 12" versions of the band's songs from the 1980s, plus "Bohemian Rhapsody" (which was only ever released as a 33 1/3 RPM 7"; the liner notes state that it was tossed in thanks to its nearly six-minute length).
• Talk Talk:
  • As a companion piece to the 1990 Greatest Hits Album Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk, EMI released History Revisited: The Remixes a year later, collecting the remix singles previously released to promote the earlier album while tossing in a few newly-commissioned remixes as well. Notoriously, the members of Talk Talk were hugely incensed by the move, and successfully sued EMI for both false advertising and misuse of material (as the album was made without the band's involvement or consent), resulting in History Revisited being permanently deleted.
  • Seven years after the History Revisited fiasco, EMI put out Asides Besides, a Distinct Double Album where disc one contained previously released 12" mixes of the band's material (with the second disc containing demos, B-sides, a few extra remixes, and the 7" version of the non-album single "My Foolish Friend"). This compilation was released as a companion piece to the 1997 remasters of the band's first four albums, and didn't draw any legal trouble as a result of it only using archival material. The remix disc would later see standalone releases in 1999 and 2001 with the respective post-release retitles 12 x 12 Original Remixes and Remixed.
• Yes had Yes Remixes (2003) where Steve Howe's son Virgil (credited as "The Verge") did drum'n'bass-inspired mixes of the band's songs from 1970 to 1980.
• Blue Amazon have the remix CD Spearhead bundled with the German Special Edition of The Javelin, which features exclusive remixes of their own singles "And Then The Rain Falls", "Four Seasons, and "No Other Love", as well as Skunk Anansie's "Twisted" and Placebo's "Nancy Boy", plus the previously vinyl-only track "Trip To Heaven".
• Dead or Alive's Rip It Up is a continuous DJ mix of the 12" versions of singles from their two preceding albums.
• Laserdance's Ambiente features remixed versions of the ambient tracks from their previous albums alongside a few original songs.
• Gary Numan's Random (02), released by Beggars Banquet and featuring house and techno remixes of songs he originally released when signed to that label. The subtitle is because it's meant as a companion piece to a Numan tribute album titled Random.

Single Remixer Interpreting Other Artists' Music

• Aphex Twin's 26 Mixes for Cash is mostly remixes done for other artists, with two tracks being alternative mixes of his own music and a couple more being his original contributions to the aforementioned Further Down the Spiral.
• Neil Cicierega's Mouth Albums all consist of hilarious and slightly disturbing remixes and mash-ups, primarily of popular songs from the late 80s to the early 00s.
• K-Klass gathered their favourite remixes on the album Remix and Additional Production.
• Girl Talk has multiple albums of mash-up style remixes, combining the vocals of one song with the music from another, in unexpected ways.
• Pet Shop Boys: Disco 4, containing their remixes of songs by David Bowie, Madonna, The Killers, Rammstein, and others.
• Soulwax: Despite its lengthy title, Most of the remixes we've made for other people over the years except for the one for Einstürzende Neubauten because we lost it and a few we didn't think sounded good enough or just didn't fit in length-wise, but including some that are hard to find because either people forgot about them or simply because they haven't been released yet, a few we really love, one we think is just ok, some we did for free, some we did for money, some for ourselves without permission and some for friends as swaps but never on time and always at our studio in Ghent is one of their most popular albums.
• The Vaporwave artist m a g g i e . w a v remixed the soundtrack to Mata Nui Online Game on bandcamp.

Multiple Remixers, Multiple Sources

• NOW That's What I Call Music! has NOW That's What I Call Remix, a compilation of popular remixes.
• The Verve Remixed album series, where a variety of electronic musicians remix jazz and soul standards from the Verve Records back catalog.

---