There are two sides of Markus when it comes to his artist albums. The first are albums made under his alias Dakota, which contain more darker, deeper, progressive tracks and aren't as mainstream as his other side. The latter are albums under his name Markus Schulz, which usually contain more vocal collabs and are generally more mainstream oriented. His previous Markus Schulz album - Do You Dream - was already very hit/miss for me, so when he announced that a new one is in the making I didn't get my hopes high. Another reason for this is definitely the short time span between his albums. DYD was released in 2010, the 2nd Dakota album in 2011, so I immediately thought "he's already making a new one? This can't be good."
After the first announcement, a lot of time had passed until we heard more news. Then came May when he debuted his first single Caught, featuring the singer Adina Butar. I hated this track as soon as I first heard it and I could only hope his album would not take this direction. My hopes were pretty much crushed when I saw the tracklist some time later. It showed that the album would consist of 23 tracks out of which 13 are useless vocal collabs, which is WAY too much. But I guess we really can't expect anything else from an artist album released on sh*tty Armada. I took my time and listened to the album anyway, so here are my thoughts*:
*Mind you, I listened to and am reviewing the extended mixes
Our Moment
Very nice intro. It manages to setup a pretty epic atmosphere, which sadly doesn't match the rest of the album at all.
Score: 7/10
Loops & Tings (vs. Ferry Corsten)
Here's the first "oldie" on the album. I think it's a pretty nice remake of a very old classic. The great bassline makes this one a good dancefloor destroyer. Markus and Ferry also managed to keep some of the oldschool vibe in the melody which follows, so that's another plus. However, we just can't have a Markus production without a pitch-bend right? After the first melodic part is over, a totally useless pitch-bend part kicks in and partly ruins the track.
Score: 7/10
Nothing Without Me (featuring Ana Diaz)
I haven't heard of Ana Diaz before, but she seems like a good singer. The production in this track is a bit more dark-ish and Ana's voice fits in very nicely. I really like the whole atmosphere and it does sound like a vocal track I'd expect from Markus. At this point I thought "hey, maybe more vocal tracks will be like this and it will turn out ok"... boy, was I wrong.
Score: 7/10
Love Rain Down (featuring Seri)
After a semi-promising start, the album takes a complete U-turn at this point.
Oh. My. God. (not in a good way)
The moment her annoying vocal kicked in the track lost me immediately. What followed was even worse - totally generic and typical trouse "in your face" cheesy synths. This track sounds like it was made by freaking Avicii, not Markus.
Score: 0/10
Carry On (featuring Jaren)
Pretty good production ruined by annoying, wailing vocals by Jaren. The part where she sings "Carry ON" makes me cringe. A dub would probably be nice, but this sure as hell isn't
Score: 3/10
Deep in the Night (featuring Fiora)
More annoying cringeworthy vocals, which again ruin a potentially good production.
Score: 3/10
Caught (featuring Adina Butar)
I have no idea what Markus hears in Adina. Her voice sounds like something that would fit into music for a cartoon about fairies and rainbows. Just another über-cheesy, unicorn pop track.
Score: 2/10
Triotonic (with Elevation and KhoMha)
The bassline in the beginning and after the "main part" is really good. However, the track looses some of its appeal due to the very generic lead in the middle.
Score: 7/10
Soul Seeking
Finally something really good. This is the sound I would usually expect from a Markus Schulz artist album. I love the way it slowly builds up during the first 2 minutes or so. That's followed by an epic melody, which would destroy any gig. Best track on the album for me.
Score: 8.5/10
Sing Me Back to Life (featuring Aruna)
Not as bad as most of the previous vocal tracks, but very boring. Not much else to say.
Score: 4/10
Don't Leave Until the Sunrise
Starts of slowly with a farty (good farty in this case, not annoying farty) bassline, which is followed by a nice piano. At this point the track has a nice summery vibe. It does manage to keep the vibe, but I think it's slightly ruined by the main synth, which isn't that good.
Score: 7/10
Until it's Gone (featuring Trevor Guthrie)
Ugh, awful male vocals on top of a very simple and uninspiring production. This sounds like a sh*tty Dash Berlin tune, enough said.
Score: 1/10
Universe is Mine (featuring Adina Butar)
Started of very promising for the first minute and a half. The production sounded deep and interesting.
Then...That.... STUPIDLY ANNOYING vocal kicked in. UGH, her singing makes my head hurt.
Score: 1/10
Tempted (featuring Sarah Howells)
Similar case to Nothing Without Me. I really dig the production and the vocals sound decent and very catchy. The lyrics are cheesy as hell, but that doesn't bother me in this case.
Score: 6.5/10
Absolution (featuring Mark Frisch)
Another uber cheesy pop tune with annoying, screamy male vocals. Horrible track in every way.
Score: 0/10
I Like It (featuring Khaz and E.L.I.)
Aaaand another "Top 40 pop chart" track. Yuck.
Score: 0/10
Digital Madness
I'm totally bored of this track already, but this extended mix is very nicely tweaked and makes it interesting. It starts of with that great outro mix, which Markus played at Transmission last year and slowly builds up to the original part. Nice job here.
Score: 7/10
Scream (featuring Ken Spector)
A dub could potentially be decent. The vocals ruin the whole track again.
Score: 2/10
Finish Line (with Elevation)
I'm usually not a fan of pitchbend-based buildups, but I love this one. Makes me chair rave everytime. The melody and main lead are basically Rotunda 2.0, but they still sound fresh enough to be interesting. I admit I was hoping Markus' collab with Elevation would be a deeper track, but I'm not disappointed, cause this a great club destroyer.
Score: 8.5/10
Go! (with Dennis Sheperd)
Another oldie here, but I still love it. The track is very repetitive, but for some reason that's the main charm. Takes a long time to build up, but this just adds tension in a positive way. The climax that follows is just epic.
Score: 8.5/10
Karbon (with Arnej)
There seems to be a lot of hate for this track, but I can't quite understand why. Overall it sounds pretty good to me. I like the dark and dirty atmosphere.
Score: 7/10
Push the Button (with Mr. Pit)
Generic, boring bigroom tune.
Score: 4/10
Silence to the Call (with Wellenrausch)
I had very high hopes for this collab, which turned out to be very disappointing. Wellenrausch are usually very good when it comes to vocal tracks, but even they failed this time. The vocals sound a bit annoying and the production is meh aswell.
Score: 4/10
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Closing Thoughts
My hopes for this album were basically non-existant, so I'm not disappointed at all after hearing the result. It turned out to be what I expected after seeing the tracklist - a very bad album, filled with cheesy crowd pleasing pop tracks with awful vocals. Some of them are so bad I just can't fully grasp they were actually produced by Markus. As you can see I liked some tracks, but that's heavily outweighed by the absolutely horrendous ones. The album also has no sense of progression and therefore feels totally random. Definitely by far his worst album effort so far and not worth getting at all as far as I'm concerned.
Overall Score: 3/10
