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Thursday, January 29, 2015

Album Review: "United We Are" by HARDWELL

For a genre that was once considered an Indie not set for mainstream, Electronic Dance Music (EDM) has made a name for itself as mentioned in previous posts on this blog. There have been many great EDM albums released in recent years, but today it's time to focus on DJ and Producer HARDWELL's debut feature album "United We Are".

The EDM Movement the we are seeing in popular culture these days stems from the unity both the artists and the fans carry from every event. Attendance records are constantly being broken, and as Las Vegas is seeing, the adoption of Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) has helped improve their economy tremendously. Another reason to believe this movement has caught on is the willingness of each DJ/Producer/Artist to collaborate and allow the masses to stream their music on services such as Spotify, Pandora, etc.

"United We Are" begins with the song "Eclipse", which has been an opening track HARDWELL has used to begin his live sets, some of which are posted on YouTube these days. The dramatic music lead in to a solid dance track is sure to pump up those ready to have a good time. In commentary about this release, HARDWELL has said his support and positive vibe from his fans lead to calling the album "United We Are". The second song "Follow Me" features Jason Derulo, which will get both sets of fans in on the fun. Collaborations among dance and popular artists tend to be the trend as of late. The next song "Sally" is just a club/dance jam.

"Let Me Be Your Home", "Colors" featuring Tiesto, & "Where is Here Now" continue to the great dance vibes that will be sure to get people singing along as well as dancing to the sick beats. The title track "United We Are" sets a tone for the entire album, especially when the vocals by Amba Shepard enter the song. The collaboration with Fatman Scoop & W&W on "Don't Stop the Madness" really gets the raging going, and is really brilliant on HARDWELL'S part. Then again in the commentary about this track, HARDWELL explains that using Fatman Scoop a lot in his live sets lead to his motivation and collaboration for this track.

The following tracks on the album do not disappoint as well. HARDWELL created a great album full of great collaborations, sick beats, and great dance vibes. It is really fitting that "United We Are" has the potential to unite all who love EDM, and this movement.