Public Enemy

One can’t be blamed for being wary of a PE remix album, which could easily be the latest installment in a long series of indignities since 1990: Professor Griff’s anti-Jewish remarks, Flavor Flav’s embarrassing drug arrest and — worst of all — Flav’s wretched TV appearances (not to mention a steady creative decline and the defections of DJ Terminator X and the Bomb Squad). None of this would matter if the group hadn’t set the world afire with two monumental albums in a row. A simple question: What could you possibly do to the classic material to make it more compelling ? The answer: a lot. In fact, these bouncy new backdrops for Chuck D and Flav will have your head bobbing from the get-go. Fresh soundscapes flow, and the result is a start-to-finish experience that hangs together and sticks in the mind at least as much as anything in Public Enemy’s back catalog. If this is nostalgia, we’ll gladly take it.