My compatriot has suggested that I, too, partake in this #MusicMonday thing we have going here on this site. I’m not really a music aficionado, and I listen to pretty much anything, so I’m not sure how capable I am of reviewing art of the audible variety. I’m pretty eclectic, and some would probably say “uncultured”. So with that in mind, I decided to ease you all in with some Rick Astley.

No, wait! Don’t go! I’m not tryng to be the lamest troll alive. I actually happen to like the Ast man (Does anybody call him that? No, probably not, and for good reason). So too, it appears, do other denizens of the Internet, as multiple people have taken his popular song, Never Gonna Give You Up, and backed it with other songs to create Frankensteinian affronts to God and man. They’re pretty sweet, though. Just take a listen to them.

3. Rick/Robo Roll

For years, people have been comparing Robo’s Theme, a song from the classic SNES title Chrono Trigger, to Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up. Listening to them, the similarities are quite striking. The game’s composer, Yasunori Mitsuda, was questioned about this, but was completely (and pleasantly) surprised. It just goes to show how truly easy it is to write a song that ends up sounding kind of like another song, even one that was written on another side of the world. I feel like most people don’t grasp that.

Anyway, somebody decided to combine the two songs, and here is the ridiculous bastard child that resulted. Seriously, though, the two fit together pretty well. Robo’s Theme has a strange effect of making the song even cheerier than before, which is intriguing for reasons which I cannot presently comprehend. Perhaps I’ll return to this once I study hard and become a master composer, and I’ll write a revolutionary dissertation on this mashup. I make no promises, though.

2. Darude Astley

“What’s that song called?”

“Darude – Sandstorm.”

“Hey… This isn’t Darude – Sandstorm! I’ve been Rickrolled! Or, wait… it is Darude – Sandstorm… but it’s also Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up?!”

And thus, two Internet memes collided. I’m not sure what else to say about this. I don’t feel that Sandstorm is a bad song, but I’m not particularly enamored with it. It’s fairly interesting from a technical standpoint, I suppose, and it’s worth listening to at least once. Astley’s voice doesn’t feel like it matches the tone of Darude’s music, but rather than clashing, I feel that it simply presents the two together from a new, altered perspective.

1. Never Gonna Wake You Up

What do you get when you combine Never Gonna Give You Up with Avicii’s Wake Me Up and Chumbawamba’s Tubthumper? Well, I’ve listened to such a thing, and I’m still not sure I can answer that question, but whatever it is, I’m sure that Dave Bowman would see a bunch of stars in it. This mashup is… actually really good. Regardless of how you feel about any of the individual songs, they somehow combine in a Voltron of harmony which is not unpleasant to the ears. At least, not to my ears. If it’s unpleasant to your ears, then I think maybe you’re just wrong. Plus, it’s set to clips of John Travolta dancing. Seriously, how much more could you ask for? To me, this is the strongest mashup of the three I’ve laid before you.

Do you have any other absurd or surprisingly good mashups you’d like to share? Post them in the comments below. Or, you know, don’t. It’s not like I’m going to make you do it.

Image courtesy of Michael Alø-Nielsen.