Porter Robinson just handed his most personal album to a new lineup of remixers and let them do whatever they wanted with it — and the fact that it still sounds like him is the whole story. SMILE! :D plus+ arrived November 6 via Mom+Pop, a sixteen-track remix expansion of 2024's SMILE! :D, pulling in Ninajirachi, underscores, and a wide cast of collaborators to rework one of the most emotionally bare records of his career.
Why a remix album, and why now
SMILE! :D wasn't a victory-lap record the first time around — it was Porter workin through burnout, self-doubt, and the pressure of followin up Nurture, one of the most beloved albums in the genre. Handin that record to other people to reinterpret is a different kind of vulnerable than writin it in the first place. You're not just hopin people like your feelings anymore, you're hopin they handle 'em right.
Part of a bigger wave
This isn't happening in a vacuum. Rolling Stone's been tracking a real remix-album revival across pop and dance music right now, and SMILE! :D plus+ is one of the biggest entries yet — a victory lap with its sleeves rolled up, not a cash-grab reissue.
- Sixteen tracks spanning the remix project.
- Ninajirachi and underscores among the credits — artists with their own distinct voice, not ghost-writers smoothing the edges.
- Out now via Mom + Pop Music, the same home as the original.
What to watch
The real test isn't the first week of streams. It's whether any of these reworks earn a permanent spot in his live set, the way some remixes outlive the originals they came from. Chart placement matters less here than whether the front rows start requestin a specific version by name.
Feature image: SWinxy, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.