Jamie Jones: Tracks from the Crypt

Proving once again that the DJ mix CD is too insular an experience for a casual listener, Jamie Jones’ Tracks from the Crypt sounds like it’d be a great listen at the club and … not too many other places. Jones, who has been dubbed “the best DJ in the world” by an unnamed (presumably) third party, is a talented guy; this album features some primo slabs of house music that would work out well on a sweat-drenched dance floor. The trick with a release like this is to elevate it above the status of something you would only listen to at the club, which doesn’t happen here. A lot of the songs feature the sort of repetition you overlook while you’re trying to get into the groove of dancing; in a private setting, however, they bore easily. In the end, Tracks from the Crypt is middling only because it forgets one of the basic dictums of putting out any sort of art, whether it be writing, music, or film: know your audience.