About a year ago, I would have been overjoyed to hear that Seven Lions had put out a new track. Last year’s Worlds Apart EP introduced such unprecedented production values to the melodic dubstep arena that the Santa Barbara, California-based producer achieved global popularity – but his recent productions have left behind the definitive, melancholy bass drops of his former style for watered-down trance and progressive house melodies.
Similar to much of what he delivered on The Throes of Winter EP several months ago, “Falling Away” isn’t particularly bad; it’s just not as mind blowing as what I’d like to expect from Seven Lions. Verses by Canadian vocalist Lights are met with warm pad and pluck synths, building to soft peaks that fail to evoke the same raw emotion as the powerful drops in songs like “Worlds Apart.”
Like other times we’ve seen artists ditch dubstep in an effort to remain relevant, Seven Lions‘ new material simply fails to measure up to the standard set by his previous work.