In 2013, Anton Zaslavski—who records as Zedd—went from "Who the fuck is Zedd?" to a household name thanks to two ubiquitous singles. First was "Clarity", the aural equivalent of standing under a fake waterfall at Tomorrowland, and the brain-invading Hayley Williams feature "Stay the Night". This was skyscraping stuff, and it’s a sound that the 25-year-old producer had made his name on behind the boards for artists like Lady Gaga (Zedd contributed three songs to Artpop) and Justin Bieber (Believe’s surging "Beauty and a Beat"). In 2015, Zedd is not only one of the richest men in the biz, he’s a tabloid star.
Given the higher profile, it was probably no surprise that the rumored Selena Gomez collaboration bore fruit in the form of "I Want You to Know", the first, Ryan Tedder-co-written single from Zedd’s new album True Colors. For better or for worse, "I Want You to Know" is a good entry point for True Colors, a collection of songs that features Zedd consistently failing to open up the playbook or alter the formula. Many songs—opener "Addicted to a Memory", "Straight into the Fire"—feature familiar pop constructions. Not unlike his hits (including his Ariana Grande collaboration "Break Free"), Zedd routinely uses soaring synth stabs with crystal clear vocals from female singers. While it’s worked in the past, it feels like the primary colors Zedd tends to paint with feel faded.
Though Zedd keeps his foot on the pedal, it comes with the cost of diminishing returns. Even changes of pace like "Beautiful Now"—male singer!—feel flat and corny ("Let’s live tonight/ Like fireflies!"). If you want vague, positive platitudes bouncing off every pocket of pixelated pomp, True Colors is a one-stop shop. Take "Transmission", a song that limply thumps around the chorus "Cause you're never too young, you're never too young, never too young to die" and features a verse from Maryland rapper Logic that makes Kalin and Myles sound like UGK.
It’s tempting to paint Zedd as a singles artist, and True Colors reveals that the DJ doesn’t have much to say at an album’s length. True Colors does traverse familiar, populous formats that may be difficult to innovate on top of, but other posi-tinted, mass audience-focused projects have found success by mixing their own cocktails of EDM, soul, and of-the-minute rap production. Zedd’s True Colors, though, feels underformed and unoriginal. Basically, swipe left.
