Carousel was over-produced, overlong, overly flawed -- and really quite good. A few minutes in, you're confronted with a glittery, elated acid house number that quickly and frighteningly transforms into a mindwarping pop epic of trance strings, false endings, and Swedish breakbeat patois-rap, and just a few tracks later, a song called "Slow Motion" spins out from under its foundational flavor of European techno-reggae and ends up sounding like a cross between
M/A/R/R/S,
Madonna,
Mis-Teeq, and
Big Audio Dynamite. Absurd and unquestionably wonderful. ~ Dean Carlson