Girl Talk

Last month, Pittsburgh stealer Gregg Gillis promised to drop an album before the end of 2010. On November 15th, he delivered the goods, literally and figuratively. With the unannounced release of All Day on the Illegal Art site, Gillis had hundreds of his party people tweeting, texting and clogging his website all before lunch. His fifth LP strays little from the Girl Talk Formula™, starting off with a sample of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" and ending with John Lennon's "Imagine," while filling in the rest with mostly '90s alt-rock and hip-hop samples. On All Day, Gillis is at his loosest and most confident, splitting the difference between his early material, which allowed samples to gestate, and newer material, which impeccably blends hundreds of samples. Gillis has created another jaw-dropper with this one, despite the fact that All Day offers few surprises. But Girl Talk's forte is throwing earth-thumping jams, not surprise parties.