Billie Holiday

For anyone who loves Lady Day, it's difficult to imagine enjoying an album on which she's just fodder for a remixer's canon. But this comp plunders her playful Columbia catalogue, painting a portrait of our current music landscape over her voice, which shines through like a beacon from a jazzier time. At its worst, the album becomes mere background music, Billie's bittersweet wail just another trick in a very full bag. Still, splice her, mix her, run her tape backwards -- in five decades, Billie Holiday will still be a cultural event, while many of these producers won't even merit a footnote.