Review: Tiesto – A Town Called Paradise

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Every Tiësto album has an obvious buzz surrounding it. A Town Called Paradise is no different, and Tiësto is no stranger to the challenges of being a superstar. When someone of his stature announces an album the expectations are bound to be high.

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The first single Tiësto released from the album was the very successful “Red Lights”. Tiësto has been playing this track literally everywhere, and for good reason. It is one of the better original productions by Tiësto recently, and the vocals only add to the charm of the track. The subtle melodic drop works wonderfully well for the track.

“Written In Reverse” features Hardwell and Matthew Koma, and you could almost pass it off as a sequel to Dare You. Matthew Koma is now synonymous with progressive collaborations with big artists, but this track is one of the better ones he has worked on off late. The lyrics are written well, Matthew never disappoints with the vocals and the drop makes for very very comfortable listening.

“Wasted” is another track featuring Matthew Koma’s vocals. The track is a little different from other Tiësto productions and has been receiving some pretty good feedback whenever Tiësto has played it live. It’s a fun track with not much seriousness in it but nevertheless an alright track to listen to.

Another interesting collaboration is with Krewella on this track called ‘Set Yourself Free’, the intro of which leads us straight to the drop we were looking for from a Krewella track, and Jahan and Yasmine do what they do best – Induce some powerful vocals onto a catchy tune to make the track ready to storm festivals and music charts alike.

‘Let’s Go’ features 2013’s breakthrough Swedish pop group Icona Pop, and the song is already being played worldwide in commercials and on the radio. Premiered at Ultra, this track contains guitar strings like in Avicii tracks, an electro drop and vocals that give a pop feel to the track.

‘Echoes’ will work wonders at huge festivals and raves , and Andreas Moe’s vocals (The vocalist from Avicii’s Fade Into Darkness) add to the mass appeal that this track has.

“Footprints” and “Light Years Away” are two more typically EDM sounding tracks, and lack that extra bit we’ve come to expect from Tiësto over the years.

The rest of tracks are pretty average at best, with the collaboration with Sultan and Ned Shepard, ‘Close To Me’ coming off as a little better due to the quality of Quilla’s vocals.

In a bid to probably please both the commercial and the hardcore musicals, Tiësto’s efforts on this album come nowhere close to his earlier glory years. Sad as it is to admit it, the Tijs magic has faded drastically and all we’re left with now is a producer who occasionally hits the bullseye, mostly with remixes. Hopefully Tiësto has a few tricks up his sleeve for the future, but for now he disappoints with his album, an average effort at best.

– Review by Shantanu Puro

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