Afrojack & R3HAB ft. Au/Ra – Worlds on Fire (Tomorrowland Anthem)
• An absurd outcome from two big names
• Slower, Future House track with great vocals
• Unfitting to the theme of Tomorrowland
It had slipped my mind that Tomorrowland has its own official anthems! It’s not so obvious, since my brief research confirmed that the last one was in 2014 (“Waves” by W&W and DV&LM) and then… nothing. Maybe someone is still recovering from the insane team-up “The Way We See The World” between the Belgian duo, NERVO and Afrojack in 2011, which inaugurated this successful series of collaboration done between the festival headlining acts.
So, I was hyped about this supposed “oldschool” venture, since the Dutch duo haven’t publicly worked together since the “Prutataa” (2011). With an unexpected underground B2B at Tomorrowland, Afrojack and R3HAB revealed the anthem for this year, featuring a delightful vocal from Au/Ra.
It’s a pleasant tune, sure, especially because the songstress involved here conveyed touching lyrics with her heartfelt voice, by far the best out of this production. Then, considering that this is representating of one of the leading festivals in world, what we instead have here is an enormous amount of… boredom. I was even hoping for R3HAB’s Brazilian Bass towards the end.
Radio-ready future house with a gradual, anonymous lead that doesn’t even sound anything familiar to the pair comes out in this outcome, and absolutely nothing refreshing included in terms of the formula. The public is used to way more aggressive and exuberant results, and for once, the absence of DV&LM is sorely missed on this unexplained endeavor.
It doesn’t add up as to why an act who is plenty capable of making Electro House, and another who puts out pop-friendly records decided to altogether step out of their usual sonic zone and make a commercial anthem for an event where every DJ is playing underground stuff. Terrible choice, out of context.
Comments made online suggested that “Worlds on Fire” was a long awaited ID, but there’s another one codenamed “Andromeda” (perhaps with Sandro Silva) that should be out soon on Rave Culture, and sounds much more like the genuine style of these two veterans. I doubt that many were even waiting for this one-dimensional, pop-leaning release whose only saving grace is the gorgeous vocal, still underperforming instrumentally. Uptil then, waiting for the second ID to sort this mess.
You can listen to “Worlds on Fire” here:
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