Hourglass (feat. LIZ)
The first track in any album always has a job, to introduce the theme of the album. Zedd does a perfect job of introducing the album. Hourglass starts off with the ticking alarm of a clock to represent waking up in the morning. Soon after vocals from Liz come in as well as a snare lick, building up towards the drop. The beat drop comes in with a great catchy synth as well as the hook from Liz. A great track to start it off, not to mention it fades really nicely into Shave It Up.
Shave It Up
Ah Shave It (Up), between the popular trend and obsession on Twitter, Shave It was a pretty good track with a catchy build up leading into a rage fest drop, along with some nice remixes featured almost a year ago, the message remains clear on this track, SHAVE IT! On a side not, I think the track was renamed from Shave It due to the fact that Shave It was released on OWSLA and for the album which was released on Interscope, the title needed to be changed because of copyright stuff.
Spectrum (feat. Matthew Koma)
Anyone who follows this blog knows that Spectrum was the sound track to my entire summer. Spectrum is this electro club banger that tells the story of endless love. The track builds up beautifully with cascading synth patterns that are so soothing to the ear, but then the track grabs you back in with a fist pumping beat drop and incredible vocal work from Matthew Koma.
Lost At Sea (feat. Ryan Tedder)
This track kicks off with a recurring, wavy synth pattern and dives right into the vocals from Ryan Tedder, soon after the next layer of synth comes in as well as a bass kick. I really like the vocals in this track for the lyrics, the track almost comes across as a romantic track, with the whole notion of being lost at sea with someone you care about. A nice track overall.
Clarity (feat. Foxes)
The title track of the album is a brilliant track, with a nice electric keyboard part and cool vocals from lesser known vocalist, Foxes. The track keeps up with the brilliant vocals and a catchy hook. Not to mention a signature beat drop from Zedd with a crowd cheering in the background. I love how Zedd manages to capture the feature of vocals and still keep a catchy tune and beat.
Codec
While Codec doesn't have vocals, it'd definitely essential to keep some solid instrumentals down on the album, and Codec does a great job of it. While the sounds in the track are something more to be recognized from some of Zedd's singles, it's still an album-worthy song. The track builds up with a heavy beat and then into a sweet breakdown before going into the drop, which is nicely composed and eventually features some random chopped up vocals.
Stache
This track was actually featured the other night on MTV Clubland but unfortunately I missed it. Anyway, this track starts off with neat harmonizing patterns and soon breaks down and builds up that unique brand of suspense before heading into the drop. The drop is not what you'd expect and it drops into some hard techno riffs before bending back to the original tracks leading into the second drop.
Fall Into The Sky & Lucky Date (feat. Ellie Goulding)
This track features two of my favourite artists, my favourite vocalist and favourite producer. Zedd and Lucky Date do a great job on the tune as well as some delicate, beautiful vocals from miss Goulding. At the beat drop, they feature some of Ellie's vocals chopped up, which sounds really cool and the drop is a hard electro beat worthy of the best producers.
Follow You Down (feat. Bright Lights)
This track was the teaser from that brilliant clip Zedd released a few weeks back. While I've been anticipating this track the most, even though it's one of the tracks that's been done for the longest time. This track was actually finished in 2011, but Zedd was waiting on the rest of his album to ready. The track features some great vocals from Bright Lights Although it didn't have the big "Zedd" drop I was looking for. However, that's not a bad thing, the track drops into a more chill, house sound that works nonetheless and leads into some cascading synth patterns with a bass kick in there. It's only to be expected that I'd imagined the track differently after being left with no drop, but this still turned out to be one of my favoured tracks in Clarity.
Epod
The closing track to the album is purely instrumental but builds up minimally, adding in layers every few bars with talent worthy of the latest Deadmau5 album. Epod eventually reaches a climax as all progressive tracks must, and a synth pattern emerges alone, which leads into a climatic beat drop and as the track winds down, we hear the same clock ticking as we heard at the beginning. Perfect.
Clarity is an incredible album, jumping to the number 1 spot in the Dance charts and 14 in the overall album rankings overnight on iTunes is absolutely incredible. Coming from such less commonly known name, Zedd certainly has a lot to be proud of. He's created one of the best albums of the year. The album is only 7.99 on iTunes, which is very cheap considering how much time and love Zedd has clearly poured into this album. You can head over here to iTunes to grab the album if you're in North America, but the album will be releasing worldwide over the next few days. If you haven't bought it yet, I really suggest doing so, as I truly don't think you'll find a better album this year. Although he took his time, he nailed every aspect and while he moves away from his usual club tracks in this album he shows us his production side of it, and holy crap is the guy exceptionally skilled. I truly cannot wait to see what he's got in store for us next, but if one thing's sure, I know with every ounce of my being that he's more than up to it.
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