87/100
Written by Allax
Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso have finally dropped their first 2018 material two weeks ago. Their latest fresh release was more than 6 months ago, in the form of heavily criticized and lacklustre future bass effort, the pop-oriented ‘Dreamer‘, aka “More Than You Know 2.0”.
The thirst for quality house content featuring their name got somewhat mitigated by the ‘Dreamer’ Remixes Package, which included a festival progressive Matisse & Sadko Remix for the original. Speaking of festival progressive house, with the genre godfathers Swedish House Mafia return it would feel only natural that Ax, Seb, and Steve would return walking on this path.
But Axwell Λ Ingrosso have already been damaged by following a trend, so they decided to break the mold with Dancing Alone, producing a rather complex progressive house that brings up every feel and inspiration the two have had on their rise to success.
The progressing, euphoric trance chord is where Axwell introduces the listeners to his ancient trance roots. Sounds familiar right? It’s really ‘In The Air‘-ish. It’s a demonstration of the duo’s classic progressive house upraise, the sound that made them who they are. Readily, they got inspired by the futuristic trance approach of Virtual Self in his avant-garde ‘Ghost Voices‘, keeping a high demonstration of their beloved experimentalism. On a little flip side, the melody, while groovy, it’s too minimal and unenergetic. Additionally, could its resonance with ‘Tierra‘ by progressive trance wiz KhoMha just be a coincidence?
‘Dancing Alone’ features British vocalist and songwriter RØMANS – continuously featuring both huge stars and undiscovered voices makes their discography all the more interesting. His vocal performance is quite underwhelming, but he manages to keep his ground up thanks to his friendly sonority, and relatable lyrics. The radio-ready tone of the vocalist stays in theme with Ax and Seb’s recent assaults at the charts, ‘Renegade’, ‘Dreamer’, and ‘More Than You Know’.
By digging in the lyrics, you understand the message is not as simple as it could sound, and Seb’s explanation doesn’t entirely sum it up.
Ax and Seb both grew up in the European clubs, and the single screams the word ‘club’. In Europe, clubs are way more accessible to the youth than what they are everywhere else in the world. In smaller communities, groups of teens start to attend party nights starting from their 14! It’s easy to see a girl that you recognize as a familiar face, that you want to approach and know because you feel like you saw her somewhere already.
Was the wait for a new single worth it? Absolutely yes.
‘Dancing Alone’ is a perfect combination of past and future. It mixes and mashes old and new trance sounds while maintaining the classic and euphoric feel of progressive house, and blasting a drop infused with pure house groove. The words are relatable to entire generations of young club-goers. But unfortunately, the message is let down by a sub-par vocal, and melody that sounds all the way too familiar to trained trance ears.
In a sense, here we have a revolutionary song for the current progressive house scene and concept, ‘Dancing Alone’, which is ready to make everybody lose their mind both at festivals and at its birthplace, the club.
What do you think?
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