Deadmau5 - W:/2016ALBUM/

Deadmau5
W:/2016ALBUM/
2016
Spotify

Just when you thought Deadmau5 was perfectly content teaching a DJ class or only performing at Tomorrowland or EDC once a year He has come back and dropped this new album W:/2016ALBUM/. In a series of tweets Zimmerman has claimed that this record, his eighth, was "rushed", "not very good" and just a play to get some money in his pocket. Well if that is the case I shutter to think what this man could come up with if He was actually trying, because this record is fucking fantastic. The opener "4ware" sets the tone for his epic production and technical abilities. The song moves and grooves into different spaces and shapes giving you both EDM bigness and the techno side which drills a song down in to it's most basic elements. You can feel some of the "rushed" comments that Deadmau5 has made on tracks like "2448", where it just lacks some of that depth that He is able to get on other tracks like "Strobe". Yet Zimmerman is still so good at what he does that even his thrown together efforts (if this was ever that) still manage to hit better than most of what is happening in EDM right now. The times when Deadmau5 includes a vocal like on "Let Go" are the tracks that seem to work the least, likely there are only two on this record and both are the same song (one is an extended mix).

 W:/2016ALBUM/ manages to span almost the entire genre of electronic music adding in elements of 80s electro, dubstep, trance house and many many more yet it still manages to remain in a league of it's own. There are times on W:/2016ALBUM/ where Deadmau5 can get to bogged down with bleeps and screeches for his own good. The end of "No Problem" has this issue getting into a Casio type solo that takes you out of this swirling beauty that is right underneath the surface. Deadmau5 likes to drill straight down and get to the very heart of thing leaving the rest on the cutting room floor, and sometimes that just doesn't happen on this record. "Snowcone" and "Whelk Then" are clear standouts and really seem to be two of the most fully fleshed out tracks on the album. They also happen to be the most different from everything else we hear today. The first half of the record seems to be where Deadmau5 sticks to the progressive house format and the second half is where He really starts to experiment and explore. Call it self deprecating or whatever you will this album is in no way "not very good" even if it might not fully live up to it's potential. In the end though with all the critical things said about W:/2016ALBUM/ it is still pretty damn good.

8.0 out of 10