the year in music: One Nation Under Chilly Willy

Chilly Willy One Nation Under Chilly Willy

On my birthday, I received an unexpected surprise—Will Mehigan released two brand new Chilly Willy albums for free online, one, a mashup dance mix, the other, a collection of original dance tunes. While The Mystical Adventures is a truly great addition to Mehigan’s ever-growing discography, One Nation Under Chilly Willy is, admittedly, the one that made my year.

One Nation is, simply put, a record containing the entire recent history of pop music, seamlessly intertwined with itself. And while this has been done before by countless DJs, it has never been done quite like this. Mehigan gives relevance to overlooked songs, credibility to demonized songs, and exudes a youthful exuberance and confidence unparalleled by his contemporaries.

Rather than create cognitive dissonance, Mehigan weaves these vastly different songs together in a new marriage of style and substance that is at once cohesive and jarring enough to keep listeners until the very end. The use of dynamics on One Nation is a welcome improvement from past mashups of his, now creating a sense of drama juxtaposed with playfulness—an epic scope to booty-shakin’ music. And, even more impressive, neither mode overstays its welcome.

While it does not always work, the moments that do are both completely absurd and, quite simply, earthshatteringly awesome. Take, for instance, the point in “Back It Up” where a deconstructed, stuttering “Ziggy Stardust” backs up “Get Low”. Or when Ratatat shuffles underneath Shakira. Or when the signature drum thump of “Song 2” and the horns of a Chicago song [almost] legitimize Katy Perry’s whirlwind bi-curiosity. And who else would have the balls to defuse Ice Cube’s snarl (“Life ain’t nothin’ but bitches and money!”) to that of a chipmunk over a song from High School Musical? The highlights are innumerable and would be difficult and pointless to try and list—I will just say that, as amazing as 2009 was for “original” music, there were few albums that I listened to as much as One Nation this year.

With these two records, Mehigan is proving himself to be fearless, and it seems to come not from an ultrahip and ironic perspective, as many might expect. While much of it may come from “wouldn’t it be funny if…” experimentation, this assuredness seems to come from a very clear and wholesome love of music—all music—that allows him to be an undiscriminating listener, not bound to trends, scenes or genres.

And as a result, Mehigan is an odd, versatile, and brilliant talent.