Zedd - True Colors

Zedd
True Colors
2015

There is something undeniable about the type of EDM that Zedd makes, it's catchy as hell. If you pretend that songs like "I Want You To Know" don't get your ass to the dance floor and have you singing along you are probably lying to yourself. This album True Colors is almost paint by numbers in it's simplicity of hit making. Zedd effortlessly crafts songs with soaring synths, crystal clear (mostly female) vocals and four on the floor beats tailor made for radio and club spins. He is a hit maker, but at least on True Colors that does not translate to an album maker. As a full release this record becomes repetitive, the same formula over and over again into bass drop oblivion. "Transmission" has one of the more interesting productions on the record, but the lyrics "You're never to young, never to young, never to young to die" come across as so blatantly pandering to his teen audience that any inventiveness that may have been there slip away.

The record is star studded with Selena Gomez, Jon Bellion, Echosmith, Jacob Luttrell and X Ambassadors just to name a few. These collaborations add a major fun factor to the tracks but don't really add anything in an artistic sense. Anyone could really sing these tracks and the result would be the same. "True Colors" the title track seems to be where Zedd decided to stretch on the record, it is darker and more brooding but in the end it falls flat amongst a group of highly upbeat dance tracks. Combing through this record with looking for substance and exploration is probably the wrong idea. This is an EDM record meant to be danced to and sung along with, not evaluated for it's critical merit. The best advice I have when listening to this record comes from Walk the Moon, "Shut up and Dance".

5.4 out of 10