Tiesto - Elements of Life CD Review

Not only is this my favorite techno album, but it is also one of my favorite overall albums from all genres of music. “Elements of Life” by Tiesto’s is his third studio released album, and was an album truly expanded Tiesto’s horizons. This album included many different collaborations with a bunch of different recording artists such as Christian Burns from the late 90’s pop band, BB Mak. In “Elements of Life”, Tiesto also demonstrated his maturity through the years with this album, as it had more of a rock and trance sound to it, not to mention this album contained more songs with lyrics than the two of his previous albums. One of the most interesting songs on the album in my opinion is “In the Dark” featuring Christian Burns. “In the Dark” carries a lighter beat while carrying a rock theme. This is the song on the album that Tiesto intended to extend out to a new audience with. It has more of a pop feel to it, and with Christian Burns singing there is no doubt that this took Tiestos popularity to a new level. This is one song that really brings out Tiesto’s ambitions for this album, which is to reach out to new fans, but also to show the people who have followed him that there are many different sides to his music. Another great song on this album, which is my personal favorite of “Elements of Life”, is “Sweet Things”. “Sweet Things” is actually the first song that I had ever heard from this album, and it just drew me in. Once I heard this song, I was very anxious to explore more of what Tiesto had to offer in his new album. This song features American singer-songwriter, Charlotte Martin, who’s incredibly strong voice matched up well with the heavy and driving trance beat that Tiesto dropped in this song. Although this is a remarkable album on Tiesto’s part, it wasn’t perfect and there are songs that I think he could have left out. “Break My Fall” is one of those songs. Unlike mostly all of the songs included in this album, “Break My Fall” didn’t draw me in from the beginning. I felt that the opening beats of this song were very light and not the typical catchy intro that Tiesto usually offers. Once the beats started to pick up and drive the song, BT entered with the vocals and totally lost me. I don’t particularly like his voice for this song. Between the voice for the lyrics and the over all texture of the beat, I did not find this song very interesting, which is uncharacteristic of Tiesto. Tiesto also featured the song “He’s a Pirate” in this album, which I personally thought was out of place with the rest of the songs in “Elements of Life”. I think this is a fun song that can extend to a bunch of audiences because of the fact that it is a techno re-mix of the American blockbuster movie “Pirates of the Caribbean” theme song, but it doesn’t go with the theme of this album, which is creativity and ambitiousness. More than anything, this song lacks originality. Overall, I think that this is a great album and one that any fan of techno music can enjoy. Tiesto definitely displayed his confidence as well as open up his sound, extending himself out to new listeners. Tiesto successfully produced an album using meaningful lyrics to reveal emotion generally not shown by trance beats without lyrics.

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