Mercedes-Benz Mixed Tape 21 Out

Following on the heels of Mixed Tape 20 – which has proved to be the Experience’s most commented post ever!! – Mercedes-Benz has released Mixed Tape 21.

The new edition, like the previous one, includes ten tracks.  These seem to veer in kind of a Nu Soul and Trip Hop kind of direction, at least in the beginning.  The later tracks are a little more standard indie pop.

So far, I’d have to say my favorite track is a new version of “I’ve Lost My Language,” by the appropriately named My Awesome Mixtape.  Stereo Inn’s “Rockshow” is nice and poppy too.  But the collection’s pretty good overall, and a worthy addition to the series.

One thing I’ve noticed about the new group, starting with Tape 19, is that the cover art seems a lot less interesting, more marketing focused.  The first run cover photos tended to be very abstract.  They were all pictures of Mercedes vehicles to be sure, but the photographers would zoom way in on a particular element: the line of a fender, a wheel seen as a graphic element, light playing off bodywork.

The new ones pretty much look like car commercials.  So far they’ve all been wider shots of the front ends of vehicles.  They don’t leave any question of what you’re looking at.  Now I’ll admit that in number 20, this worked brilliantly.  But that was a case where the car carried it off.  That was just a lovely piece of art.  Perhaps I don’t like 19 and 21 as much because they’re shots of blocky SUVs.  But whatever the reason, I don’t like them as much.  If they’re going to stay with the “magazine ad” photos, hopefully MB will pick sexier cars in future releases.  Like I said, number 20 was a killer.