Armin van Buuren is an artist that has accumulated a vast amount of success and following for his past work. His traditional trance style influenced many, and his weekly radio show, “A State of Trance,” has millions of listeners in dozens of countries. Combine this with a recent Grammy nomination, it seems as though van Buuren would stick to his roots and produce an album entirely in his mastered sound. However, van Buuren takes some calculated detours from his traditional trance sound on Embrace, and embraces more of a dance-pop/electro-pop album with elements of trance, progressive house, electro-house and some pop-rock throughout this 15-track album.
The album starts out with a shift, a slow smooth set of piano and trumpet gives this opener a jazzy atmosphere. “Embrace (feat. Eric Vloeimans)” then adds booming bass drums and strings to accompany the blaring trumpet and lead into an electric guitar melody that is very catchy and reminiscent of a traditional electro-house anthem. The epic, seven-minute track is a highlight of the album for me as it adds a blend of trance-style synthesizers, some progressive house sounds as well as a good incorporation of real instruments.
“Heading Up High (featuring Kensington)” flips a more traditional electronic beat buildup for elements of pop-rock, including a booming chorus and real drums. Track eight, “Hands To Heaven (feat. Rock Mafia),” features a dark, industrialized tone and sound. It is more a blend of electro-house than anything else but features some notes of trance with a light synthetic chorus and a falsetto plea to “throw your hands to heaven.” However, the synthetic melody isn’t as catchy as some others and the track doesn’t seem to fit in well. Another track that didn’t seem to fit in was the song “Off The Hook” with Hardwell. The track has a very big room house feel, and features many buildups and drops that are out of place. A song that is undeniably beautiful, but out of place, is the closing track “Looking For Your Name (feat. Gavin DeGraw)” which features an acoustic piano melody and some slight strings accompanying DeGraw crooning over a lost love.
When van Buuren sticks to his traditional uplifting progressive style of trance music, he produces some catchy and memorable moments. “Another You (feat. Mr. Probz)” and “Strong Ones (feat. Cimo Fränkel)” are both catchy and feature booming progressive, “four-on-the-floor” rhythmic drums. Tracks like "Caught in The Slipstream (feat. BullySongs)” and "Indestructible (feat. DBX)” also feature this style of big emotional choruses under the typical rhythmic drums aforementioned.
“Old Skool,” the only song to not include a featured artist, diverges completely from any sort of formula previously performed, and is more of a ’80s hip-house track which van Buuren performed live. It is a neat addition but is the start of a set of tracks that all don’t belong on the same album as, for example, “Another You (featuring Mr. Probz).”
The longer songs of the album play with traditional progressive house buildups and flirt with adding in real instruments such as the trumpet, piano and even a Spanish guitar on the 5th track “Face of Summer (featuring Sarah deCourcy).” These tracks play out well and would suit the traditional van Buuren listener who is willing to adapt and realize that van Buuren is no longer exclusively trance. The shorter tracks feature less of a buildup but still provide catchy choruses and melodies.
The overall lyrical themes of Embrace tie in well with van Buuren’s uplifting trance style and the titles of the tracks explain their content well. The album is generic at times, but will keep Armin van Buuren around as a club favorite and shows his adaptability in the electronic market. However, some questionable collaborations and structure of the album combined with its generic feel leave the listener with the idea that van Buuren is still capable of more.
Grade: B+
