Armin van Buurens Embrace

Like many others, I was introduced to dance music through trance. I

must have been around 7-8 years old and I would hear these weird
sounds blasting off the speakers of cars passing by. By the age of 12
I finally got a broadband internet connection and started
downloadinglistening everything that started with dj. That led me
to Tisto, and that led me to trance.
That was already at a time when trance music was passed its prime,
but I still appreciated it. There was something there I really, really
liked: the connection between melody and rhythm, the energy
attached to it. Even if it was corny and it mostly was even if it is
repetitive and it mostly, and unfortunately, is.
All that to say that while trance isnt the genre I listen to mostly
these days, I still look back at it from time to time. When I realized
Armin van Buuren had released a new artist album, I went to listen
to it.
From what I followed (and to be honest I havent been following
much lately), Armins latest albums were irregular to say the least:
Imagine was poor, Mirage was surprisingly good and Intense was
worse but still with a few good notes like the title track and Pulsar.
So I wasnt excited but curious as to see what Armin and Benno de
Goeij had to present us in Embrace.
The disappointment starts in the intro track. Since Imagine, the first
track was a lengthy, thoroughly-worked piece, usually featuring
orchestras, electric guitars and what not. This time the formula is
the same; the track structure, however, is shamefully poor.
Embrace starts in a crescendo mood like every intro track. The
trumpet solo is really good; from thereon, however, its downhill.
While some parts of the track actually fit the bill, the build-ups and
breakdowns are particularly poorly achieved (the breakdown at 5:07
illustrates this perfectly) at times it seems the track was done by a
kid playing with really good samples in Fruity Loops. Some of the
percussion options, particularly all that EDM messy build-up, is
completely out of touch with the subtlety of the lead trumpet
melody.
What follows is a sorry show of forgetful tracks: Another You with
Mr Probz clearly came out of let me make a summer track with that
wave after wave guy, Strong Ones with Cimo Frankel is yet
another easy-on-the-words Aviciish single. By the time you get to
the fourth track, Make It Right with Angel Taylor, your hears feel
close to thankful for hearing something that resembles originality
even if it really isnt.

The album starts picking up here - Face of Summer with Sarah

deCoucy is better: the Balearic touch adds something that
ultimately saves the track. Heading Up High with Kensington is an
enjoyable effort, although theres little more to add about it. Gotta
Be Love with Lyrica Anderson has some electro-trance interesting
influences, slightly remembering Ferry Corstens We Belong.
Hands to Heaven with Rock Mafia starts off well but wears off
pretty quickly and leaves you with uninspired breakdown-to-buildup-and-drop structures. The two songs with BullySongs (who the hell
picks up names like that? Ah well), Caught In The Slipstream and
Freefall are more of the Avicii, summer, hands-in-the-air thing.
In between them, however, theres Embargo with Cosmic Gate,
which is arguably one of the best tracks of the album maybe even
better than the title track because unlike Embrace, Embargo has
a structure that makes sense. Indestructible with DBX could have
honestly been written by a track-generator: obnoxiously banal lyrics,
and the most template-like structure imaginable. It hurts. Then it
comes Old Skool. I dont know what to think of it. It makes me think
of the worst nightclubs Ive been to the tourist-trap sort of thing.
The track clearly tries to emulate something I cannot really discern
what but its clear it fails miserably. Then comes the big-name
collab of the album, Off the Hook with Hardwell. To my mind, it
makes the podium not because it is necessarily better, but it
clearly delivers the purpose it was created for: big room arenas filled
with glowsticks and lasers and what not. The last track, Looking For
Your Name with Gavin DeGraw is also decent partly because its
an acoustic version. But the track is set at 132 bpm so you can
assume theyll rape it in time for the world tour surely following this
album release.
Having written this as I listened through the album I realised I might
have been slightly too harsh. I dont have anything against Armin
van Buuren in fact, he used to be one of my favorite producers
together with Above & Beyond.
The main conclusion you get from the album is sadder, however: the
problem is not in each individual track. Theyre run-of-the-mill, not
an absolute abomination. Its the overall impression that is slightly
more worrying: the impression one gets is that Armin is burnout.
Theres nothing new on any of the tracks. Some more than others,
they all give in to this Ive-heard-this-before sound.
The tracks all have the same predictable structure; Embrace, the
one that does not, seems like a good effort that was rushed midway
and lost its elegance. That is sadly telling of what trance has
become: save for a few good acts like Parker and Hanson and others
that keep showing up, it has become a null genre that combines the

worst of the big-room stuff now called EDM with an even bigger
dose of cheesiness than the one EDM sustains.
Verdict: AvB stood alone when all the father figures of trance left
the genre and sometimes almost single-handedly prevented it from
completely vanishing and I commend him for that. He did so in great
style for a long time and kept releasing fresh material that at was
often the best mainstream had to offer. But this album shows the
formula he adopted worn out. Its dead and done and most his
productions from the last two years sound the same. Also, Armin
had over the years many instrumental hits over the years; its a
shame to see that he, too, surrendered to a virtually all-vocal album.
Embrace isnt just bad its a great sum-up of everything
that went wrong for trance in the last 10 years.