Deadmau5, ‘Professional Griefers’ – Song Review

Deadmau5 is a strange cat. About a week after recently taking to Twitter to say that he needed to ”to unplug for a wee bit” and “just chill the f— out," the man known to the world as Joel Zimmerman when unmasked seemed to patently contradict that by announcing his plans to release a new album, ‘Album Title Goes Here,' on Sept. 25. So much for taking a break.

The title of ‘Album Title Goes Here' is the spiritual descendant of 2008′s ‘Random Album Title’ and 2009′s ‘For Lack of a Better Name,’ but chronologically it follows 2010's '4×4=12,’ Deadmua5's breakthrough release and first to land on the the Billboard 200 tally, where it remained for more than 100 weeks. '4x4=12' also was nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album at the 54th Grammy Awards, yet somehow many critics still felt that the disc rarely rarely excelled beyond pleasing to become a truly dazzling affair.

The disc's overwhelming reliance on instrumental tracks was likely the culprit. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, this time around Deadmau5 recruited a handful of well-known voices -- including stoner hip-hop vets Cypress Hill, indie singer Imogen Heap and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance -- to add vocals and inject some personality.

That's Gerard Way taking the mic on lead single 'Professional Griefers,' which has been around in instrumental version at least since Deadmau5 busted it out at Lollapalooza 2011. Check that version out here, then compare it to the album track below -- all the dance-friendly, deep-bass grooves are there on the instrumental take, of course, but Way's vampy vocals seem ready to give the push to the mainstream that it's otherwise missing.

Listen to Deadmau5, 'Professional Griefers' (Feat. Gerard Way)