Rating: - Exciting!
I got Bond's debut album a couple years ago.  Although not as exciting as Vanessa-Mae's album "Storm," it was better than Vanessa-Mae's debut crossover album "The Violin Player" and approximately equal to her third album, "Subject To Change."  The Bond debut had a lot of energy, but to me it was begging for a little stronger beat.

So when I found a Bond remix album late last summer, I grabbed it!  How cool can that be--a Bond remix album!  Whoo-hoo!!!

When I got it home and listened to it, I was a bit disappointed because it wasn't quite remixed enough.  I wanted the mixes to be hotter, and the bass and drums more pronounced.  But under-remixed is far preferable to over-remixed, which is a problem with Vanessa-Mae's song "Storm."  This is my favorite Vanessa-Mae song; the four-minute album length is not nearly long enough for me, so when I learned there was an 8-minute remix, I just had to have it!  I had to buy this Vanessa Mae CD single from a store in England (via Amazon's used CD vendors) since I could not find it stateside.  And I was very disappointed:  The remixer had so vastly remixed it that not only did it lose all its energy, it wasn't even recognizable!  So between over-remixing and under-remixing, I prefer under-remixing, thus I am happy enough with the remixes on this Bond album.  But they could have done better, I think.

Although I was a little disappointed that the mixes not being spruced up quite enough,  it does not mean I do not like this album.  Au contraire! I love this album! It is an album full of energy, life, vitality! It is an album that I nearly always play very LOUD! It as an album that I play when I'm wound up, feelin' good!!! Nearly every song is fast, and the beat never stops!

The album opens with "Viva!", a song that is also found on their DVD, which I bought around the same time I got this album. What a perfect song to start this album with! A sample of a group of females shouting 'VIVA!" plays from time to time throughout, adding to the energetic playing of the strings. On the DVD, this song is backed with video footage from their concert at the Royal Albert Hall in England; in the video, when the shouts "VIVA!" are heard, fireworks shoot out from the balconies and the stage at the theater--so exciting!

The next song is the remix of their first radio hit, "Victory," which starts out with a hot Latin beat and Spanish guitars. "Victory" and another track, "Fuego," feature frenetic string playing. The best song on the CD for dancing--and my second favorite song on the album--is "Duel." This has a driving bass line and percussion beat, an upfront electronic synthesizer riff, and a beautiful ethereal female nonverbal vocal accoutrement, with tubular bells even added toward the end. Spine-tingling! Wonderful!

Although "Duel" and my favorite song "Viva!" rule supreme in the degree of spine-tingling awesomeness, they're not the only ones to bring such a pleasurable reaction to me. "Wintersun" is played with deep heartfelt emotion; "Atlanta" also is full of emotion. I like "Speed" and "Time" because of their European technopop sound, especially "Time," which has a nice melodic, minor key electronic keyboard riff. "Shine" has a bit of a Spanish or Italian flair, another of many romantic flavors of this album.

There are only two songs on the album that I don't care for. One I absolutely don't like is "Jingle Bell Rock," but that's because I hate the song, not because I don't like their version of the song. If I am forced to listen to that song, I would likely choose their version. The other one I like okay, but it doesn't do for me what the rest of the songs on the album do: "Bond on Bond." This is a track of them doing the James Bond theme. A cool idea, and it works, but again, doesn't float my boat. Fortunately, these two songs are at the end of the album, so I can just end the album at the third to the last song, which is also my second favorite song, "Duel"!

Most of the DVD's music comes from their first album, while this remix CD has the best of their first two albums. I now have their third studio album, "Classified," which I like better than their first album (I don't have their second), but no surprise to me, this remix album of theirs is clearly my favorite. "Storm" by Vanessa Mae is my favorite secular album of all time, all genres combined, so naturally in the genre of classical crossover it is my favorite. Bond's "Remix" is my second favorite classical crossover album. It reaches down and touches the heartstrings of my musical soul and stirs them up to make a fabulous and emotional listening experience for me!