Anton Zaslavsky, otherwise known as Zedd, has gained massive recognition in the EDM world. After releasing single after single since the start of his career, Zedd has finally released his second studio album True Colors and is back to show everyone what he is capable of.
True Colors is a brilliant effort at creating this summer’s radio ready anthems. ‘Addicted To Memory‘ serves as the album’s opening track, featuring Bahari who provides her soft vocals in harmony over lush synths hitting back and forth between eccentric bass lines. This is the type of track purely aimed at his commercial audience though; easy listening and nothing special. ‘I Want You To Know‘ and ‘Beautiful Now‘ follow a similar structure, featuring the likes of Selena Gomez and Jon Bellion. These tracks all contain what feels like the same climatic drops and chords progressions. Ultimately, not a great start.
‘Transmission‘, featuring Logic and X Ambassadors, picks up the pace a little providing a blend of hip hop and electronic beats but the release quickly falls back down when we reach ‘Papercut‘, featuring vocals from YouTube sensation Troye Sivan. The track holds a soft thumping bass and repetitive piano driven melody throughout and, although it has a catchy melody and Sivan’s voice is somewhat soothing, it drags on for an unnecessary seven and a half minutes.
Taking a drastic turn from ‘Papercut’ is ‘Bumble Bee‘, a track that’s co-produced with Botnek and is almost definitely festival focused. It’s full of energy with a punchy bass line but the track feels misplaced in the album. ‘Daisy‘ takes a slower turn again back to a more summary vibe with bright vocals, crossing the line from being less of a dance track to more of a pop anthem.
Overall, True Colors is truly diverse. Zedd appears to be having fun with the artists with which he collaborates and doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously. There is no distinctive sound you can align with Zedd and maybe this is a good thing as it does show his diverse capability. Despite this inconsistency, there are some songs on this album which are great on their own, however, this album as a whole does seem to be a roller-coaster with no direction whatsoever.
