PVD has had quite a storied history. His work in the 90s paved the way for trance across the board (for better and for worse), his ESCM-era collaborations with BT hold strong even a decade later, and people still routinely flock to his shows paying double the rates for an average club night. On the flip side, the 2003 disaster that was Reflections left even his most dedicated fans befuddled as to why an innovator would throw his work away by latching onto the latest cheap trend.

The continuously-mixed In Between doesn’t rise to the former glory of Seven Ways, but it far exceeds Reflections and falls as as a poppier version of Out There and Back. The bad news is, Van Dyk is again late to the party and guilty of co-opting the latest trend (In this case, electrohouse). The good news is, it’s not altogether unoffensive, and even enjoyable at times. This sound has been done plenty before—incidentally by Jody and Nick of Way Out West—so all that remained to be seen was what PVD would actually do with it.

The results shouldn’t surprise anyone:  Liberally reverberated Female Vocalists of the Week ("Please sir, may I have some more?"), light melodies and enough atmospheric pads to patch the ozone. This is painfully clear in tracks such as “Haunted,” the first single “White Lies” and the dreamy “Get Back.” Interestingly enough, as soon as the vocalists are dumped like yesterday’s crush and Paul’s forced to do his own work, the album picks up steam and actually starts to kick some ass. The mid-album “Far Away” presents an impressive glimpse of well-balanced elements (at 3:32, a glimpse indeed) while not too obviously advertising its Sequoia inspirations; the pulsating modulation of “In Circles” contrasts nicely with a pair of piano leads. Perhaps the most delightfully reminiscent moment comes from the tragically short “La Dolce Vita,” which utilizes PVD’s trademark effectively simple melodies, driving beats and uplifting hopefulness. Another surprise comes in the form of “Let Go,” a Jacques Lu Cont-inspired opus movement deserving of The Killers.

The bottom line is that it’s standard fare, nothing surprising we didn’t expect to hear from Paul Van Dyk. This is a bit of a drag, but the average fan will lap it up and love it. I wasn’t blown away, but I wasn’t offended either. I’ve been through this album from start to finish twice without difficulty, and the continuous nature of the tracks makes for easy listening. Average, on the slight side of enjoyable. Like a good day for fries at McDonalds.

6/10

Well, I guess that sucks.  Not really sure...IMO, Out There and Back was significantly more compelling than Seven Ways, and I still think it’s his best album to date.  So if it’s more of that only a bit cheekier, I’ll check it out.  Honestly, I saw the electrotrance thing coming, being the bread and butter of a recent show I saw.  However, tho all the electrotrance made the seminal ‘Nothing But You’ absolutely rock when it showed up in the mix, it was a bit jarring going from the harder intentions electro implies into, say, “For An Angel” (that happened, kinda lost the energy then, prolly great for the kids who don’t know that the track is as old as they are, or nearly.)

At this point I’d like to mention that, for all the flack he gets for whatever reason (usually being trance is enough), he’s actually quite the DJ and can do all sorts of things good DJs should be able to; he’s mixes and drops with the ease and skill of experience, he’s good at manipulating floor mood, and he has, in my experience, made more than one track that I thought was boring filler sound much better than the merit it deserved.  The guy you should be seeing instead of Tiesto.  Actually, that guy is probably Ferry Corsten.  But really, just go see Way Out West.  And then, read this, it will completely crack you up and set you straight:

http://www.ishkur.com/articles/trancecracker.php

And now, a brief review of PvD’s albums:

45RPM = Good (different for the time)
Seven Ways = Okay (a little too slow to go anywhere for me, anyone else agree?)
Out There and Back = His Best (trance in many flavors, spirit of the 90’s matured, ‘Vega’ and ‘Tell Me Why’ are personal favs)
Reflections = Awful with Exceptions (those being the famous ‘Nothing But You’, ‘Connected’ if it weren’t so long, and my fav ‘Coming Home’ or ‘Home’ or whatever, just so gorgeous and well done, like if ‘Lullaby for Gaia’ had a superfan.)

He can certainly write a competent, even unique trancer (his skillz with “uplifting hopefulness” are never surpassed, being about the most accomplished positively vibed trance you can find, whether you consider this a good thing or not), so I’ll probably just have to give this a listen and pick the few tracks off it that werk and kind of sigh at the rest of the crap on the album, lemme guess, 4/4 pulse kicks with maybe, I dunno, some pads, and bass that’s a little too tasteful, probably an arpeggio here and there, and then that one melody?  Maybe the ole PvD key change?

Nice review as always, dude.  I got bored at work, sry. 

Peace, pokies.