Artists’ creative paths are defined by the genres, styles and elements that they use in their creations over time. Most artists love to experiment, by releasing records outside of their comfort zone. From a listener’s standpoint, this change could sound drastic or very nuanced. Yet, it represents a change in the artist’s direction. Sometimes, these experiments may be manifested as singles, signalling temporary deviation from an artists journey. Other times, they may come as entire albums, making a permanent, irrevocable mark on an artist’s discography (as in this case).
When Blasterjaxx first announced their album, Perspective, back in the early months of this year, fans were left with mixed feelings from the post’s message. It talked about exploring new styles, which many fans thought to be pop. With each single release, however, it’s been increasingly clear that the album would centre around bigroom.
It’s clear from the final product that Blasterjaxx’s debut album presents a diverse, yet coherent, interpretation of the bigroom scene, expanding into progressive house, hardstyle, techno and more. Perhaps one of the longest albums you’ll hear in EDM, spanning 23 tracks, Perspective delves far and wide into the domain of bigroom and explores it to the fullest. Check out what Blasterjaxx have to say:
‘We generally deliver club or festival minded tracks. For these, we usually complete the whole idea of a record within two days. For this album, we set up writing camps, spent a week in a holiday bungalow with only a small setup: guitar, microphone and software, building tracks from scratch. We invited a lot of singer-songwriters to sing various themes, created a different angle for each track, from a tech vibe to indie dance or big room. This resulted in a lot of productional work, but in the end it all fitted perfectly with our own sound. We are so proud it’s finally here, our own ‘Perspective’ on today’s dance music – a debut we’ve always dreamed of!” – Blasterjaxx
A few highlights from the album are definitely worth pointing out, apart from the previously released singles. Alice’s Story is the classic bigroom tune that you would expect from Blasterjaxx’s Savage days, and has seen mega support from trance legend Armin van Buuren too. Fire switches things up with a more future house feel and Taking Over with KEVU feels like the bigroom monster you’d expect them to play in their sets (which they have).
Two noticeable variations on the bigroom theme are Royal Beluga, a tech-house-influenced, with some added white noise and horns to add the energetic Blasterjaxx touch, as well as Our Luck, a hardstyle collaboration with Frontline with a demolishing kick.
Unlike what you’d expect from a package full of bangers, Perspective really feels like an album, because of the dominant lyrics in many tracks, interspersed by interludes which go by the names of I, II and III. After its release, many have compared this album to Hardwell’s United We Are, trying to decide whether this 23-track behemoth really could be the best bigroom album ever. We leave that decision up to you.