Album Review: Armin van Buuren - Mirage

It's the album the entire dance scene has been waiting for. After months of hard work and creativity, the number one DJ in the world delivers his fourth artist album. Armin van Buuren is proud to present to you Mirage.

Armin: Mirage has been the biggest project I've ever worked on. There's so many hours in this. Work started two years ago when I actually built a completely new studio for this project. Many new techniques were used and most of all I had so much fun creating this with the many people that are involved. It was a journey, an epic one! (from arminonly.net)

'76','Shivers' and 'Imagine' are still etched in memory of millions of dance music lovers. Fresh memories will be made as soon as the album hits stores on 10 September 2010 (10-10-10). Mirage reveals a side of Armin his fans haven't heard yet and takes in its listeners with new and surprising collaborations. Within the 2 years of endless jamming and producing, Armin invited artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Ferry Corsten, BT, Nadia

Ali, Guy Chambers, Christian Burns and Adam Young of Owl City into his studio.

As the first single of the album, Armin chose Full Focus, an instrumental track set to fill arenas, clubs and scorch across the festival terrains set up for the summer of 2010.

Armin: The first track of the album has been a sure shot in my sets for quite a while now. I decided to come back with an instrumental trancer right before summer and all the big festivals. Half of my new album will be instrumental trance, but with the sound of 2010 (from arminonly.net)

Right after summer, it's time for the full 'Mirage' album to take over. Inspired and influenced by many different types of music, Mirage is more diverse than any other Armin album before. His collaboration with

Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Not Giving Up On Love is a perfect example of

that, combining the best of both worlds.

Armin: The Nervo Sisters, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and me met up to write the vocals for Not Giving Up On Love. I was thrilled to work with them on this. We gave it a more analog feel with some real drums, to give it a pop-rock feel. We also put a piano top line on the track and then the vocals of Sophie, which I think is a win. It's a lush summer tune with an epic vocal that gets stuck in your head and cheers you up! (from arminonly.net)

Mirage is filled with musical fusions and surprising interpretations, from the orchestral masterpiece of title track Mirage, deep trance track I Don't Own You and housey Feels So Good to the eerie Take A Moment and feel-good Drowning and my personal favourites Not Giving Up On Love (with Sophie Ellis-Bextor), Minack (collab with Ferry Corsten) and Youtopia (with Adam Young of Owl City) 16 tracks that highlight how Armin has matured as an artist (plus 6 more from iTunes)

Noteworthy tracks are Desiderium 207, Mirage, Not Giving Up On Love, I Don't Own You, Drowning, These Silent Hearts, Coming Home, Minack, Youtopia


Track list:

01. Desiderium 207
02. Mirage
03. This Light Between Us
04. Not Giving Up On Love
05. I Don't Own You
06. Full Focus
07. Take A Moment
08. Feel So Good
09. Virtual Friend
10. Drowning
11. Down To Love
12. Coming Home
13. These Silent Hearts
14. Orbion
15. Minack
16. Youtopia
iTunes Bonus
17. Breathe In Deep
18. Take Me Where I Wanna Go
19. I Surrender
20. Love Too Hard
21. Virtual Friend (acoustic version)
22. Mirage (other version)

Your thoughts guys--