If there were one anthemic song to pluck off 4Hero's latest (and long waited for) full-length album Play With The Changes, "Morning Child" is the one. As the first single off the album this single has some pretty high expectations to meet and in 4Hero's established form, does so very nicely with mixes from Daddy G (Massive Attack) and The Landau Orchestra among others.

1. Morning Child (radio edit)
2. Morning Child (Daddy G (Massive Attack) rmx)
3. Morning Child (The Landau Orchestra rmx)
4. Morning Child (L.A.O.S. rmx)
5. Morning Child (midnight house mix/Danya Vodovoz rmx)
6. Morning Child (instrumental)
7. Morning Child (Daddy G instrumental)
8. Morning Child (The Landau Orchestra instrumental)

Beside being a superbly written song with a classic, feel good soul sound, it benefits from the sweet voice of Carina Andersson. If you're familiar with 4Hero's well known "Les Fleur", which also featured Carina's vocals, you can imagine the sound of Morning Child by replacing the slightly folky sound of Les Fleur's first half with a soul style, adding pronounced tambourine hits along with each snare hit, and removing the epic Aquarian chorus that Les Fleur builds into.

In the case of this single however, it's all about the mixes and there's almost no way you can avoid loving the work Daddy G of Massive Attack did with Morning Child. As you might expect, the songs soulful attitude is replaced by the kind of tense, slowly creeping atmosphere that made Massive Attack's music so damn good. I'll just say, if you are or were a fan of Massive Attack, you're really going to want this mix.

In the Spring of 2007 The Landau Orchestra released their most excellent electronic and jazz album Janus Plays Telephone. Though they play with strong jazz tones, they're nothing like 4Hero. Their mix of Morning Child is the perfect medium, falling resoundingly at the interchange of The Landau Orchestra's own, horn-laden jazz and 4Hero's uplifting, soulful original version of the song. Another excellent mix that is sure to make long-time Jazzanova fans very happy.

There's a massively high tempo drum and bass mix from Finland's L.A.O.S. (LargeAmountOfSoul) that easily makes itself my least favorite of these mixes. It may however make old school 4Hero fans very happy.

Hannover, Germany based Danya Vodovoz delivers a late night house vibe with his mix that's minimal and deep enough to remain really enjoyable. Interestingly however, this isn't one of the mixes that's also offered in instrumental form. The fact that there are instrumentals of not only the original, but also the Daddy G and Landau Orchestra mixes is an incredible move that will definitely open these up to enjoyment by those with a vocal aversion.

This is an excellent EP with the perfect message to start the New Year with.

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At the time of publishing you can grab an "edit" version of Daddy G's mix gratis from 4Hero's Last.fm page.

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