Jonas Blue has been making a lot of music with some high profile names over the past few years, so it comes as a bit of a surprise that the UK DJ and producer is only now about to release his debut album, ‘Blue’, due out on November 9.
Listening to the 15 track album however it becomes clear as to why it’s taken so long – of the tracks on it, nearly half have already been released as singles over a period spanning the past 3 years: ‘Fast Car’, featuring Dakota, first came out in 2015, ‘Perfect Strangers’ (JP Cooper), and ‘By Your Side’ (Raye) were released in 2016, ‘We Could Go Back’, featuring Moelogo, and ‘Mama’, with William Singe, which became a huge club hit, was released in 2017, and ‘Rise’ (Jack & Jack), ‘I See Love’ (Joe Jonas), and the most recent, ‘Polaroid’, with Liam Payne, and Lennon Stella, were all released this year.
Jonas Blue is undoubtably a big name – in 2016 alone he sold more singles globally than any other debut British artist, and was streamed more than 1 billion times that year. So his name clearly has cachet, and it’s no wonder artists such all those already mentioned, as well as Nina Nesbitt (featured on track five, ‘Desperate’) and Deezer Next Global Priority Act, Zak Abel, who sings on the opening track, ‘Drink To You’, are keen to work with him.
What is most surprising on ‘Blue’ are the songs previously released by Jonas which haven’t made the cut. Not present is Sabrina Carpenter, and ‘Alien’, or MK and Becky Hill with ‘Back & Forth’. Undoubtedly, given just how many artists Blue has worked with, it’s been a very difficult decision working out just which tracks not to include, but perhaps they could have stretched it to a 17 track album and added those ones – particularly as ‘Back & Forth’ charted at the 17th spot in the UK, well higher than ‘We Could Go Back’ at 74.
‘Blue’, as an album, is easy listening – but not in a bad way. All the tracks are easy on the ear, there’s nothing shocking about any of them, and it’s likely that it’ll sell well, and not just because of the buying power of the fans of each of the artists on the album (although that will likely be a very strong factor with regard to its success).
Jonas Blue’s beats allow his guests to find their voices, they don’t overpower, and at the same time they could likely stand alone as instrumentals. And this is probably my main issue with the album; it would be great to have some purely instrumental tracks on the record, something to say, “this is a Jonas Blue album”. Instead, with all 15 tracks having guest vocalists, it’s essentially a compilation album.
‘Blue’ by Jonas Blue, is out on November 9. You can see him performing at Dublin’s Wright Venue on that night, with tickets available here. You can find out more about Jonas Blue online on his official website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Spotify.
