David Byrne & Fatboy Slim

Few artists posses me ability to fuse disparate musical styles in original ways and still end up with an enjoyable result. The latest project from David Byrne and big-beat pioneer Fatboy Slim does just that, and then some. The project features incredibly diverse guest vocalists - from established pop queens (Cyndi Lauper) to indie darlings (Santigold, St. Vincent), but manages to maintain a cohesive sound distinctive of either artist's past work.

It goes even farther though, kind of an experiment in cross-genre story-telling, pulling elements from breakbeat, disco, pop, all while telling the bizarre (yet fascinating) life story of Imelda Marcos - the former first lady of the Philippines, known for her extravagant spending during her husband's twenty-year dictatorship and the 3000+ pairs of shoes found in the royal palace when they fled, in 1986, from a populist revolution.

The album gets released April 6, but if you hit up David Byrne's website, you can stream previews of the entire album and download a free copy of the track "Please Don't," featuring Santigold. I highly recommend listening to it beginning-to-end as a first run through - this is one of the rare cases where the album format really does lend itself to the flow of the album.