Well, the day we have been anticipating since the announcement of Above and Beyond‘s Common Ground Album at ABGT250 is finally here!
Common Ground, the fourth studio album from Above & Beyond, is released today – Friday, January 26 – on the band’s own Anjunabeats imprint. – Fuck Yes!
Fresh Music Freaks staff has been jamming the album in its entirety since Google Play made our purchased download available at 2 AM. We could give a breakdown of each track but our press release did it nicely for us so why deter from that. Besides, do you really care what we have to say before you go listen to it? Probably not. We do think it’ pretty fucking on point though and has us geeked for Portland (Red Cube), Idaho (Revolution), Utah (Get Lucky), and Arizona (RELENTLESS BEATS TO HOST PHOENIX STOP OF ABOVE & BEYOND’S COMMON GROUND TOUR) tour dates., and the finale at Red Rocks.
Normally we would include links you could click under each song but our reworking this year is to help push more of you to download and stream music, consider it’s a helpful nudge not to pirate music and explore more new music.
We let you choose your experience!
Common Ground kicks off in a cinematic style with ‘The Inconsistency Principle’. Things then move to the dance floor with recent favorites ‘My Own Hymn’ and ‘Northern Soul’, debuted by Above & Beyond at their sold-out ABGT250 festival. OceanLab siren Justine Suissa shines on the groove-heavy ‘Naked’, while A&B mainstay Zoë Johnston lends her voice to the sun-soaked ‘Sahara Love’. ‘Happiness Amplified’ features a rapturous refrain delivered by the unmistakable voice of Richard Bedford, before a change in gear for the progressive ‘Is It Love? (1001)’. The slow-burning ‘Cold Feet’ is another poignant moment from Justine Suissa, with Marty Longstaff tackling the uncertainties of life in ‘Tightrope’. ‘Alright Now’ preaches perseverance in the toughest of times while ‘Bittersweet & Blue’ reflects on absence and abandonment. Stripping things back to the band’s instrumental core, the stunning ‘Always’ is an optimistic Zoë Johnston-led ballad. The title track, ‘Common Ground,’ premiered at Ultra Miami 2017, is a final, thought-provoking instrumental bookend to the journey.
I mean they are also doing this too…
The release of Common Ground coincides with a tour of the same name – A&B’s most ambitious North American tour to date. Presented by T-Mobile, the tour kicked off on December 29th at the Los Angeles Convention Center with the first full leg of the tour picking up this week. Highlights include stops at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, two nights at Rebel in Toronto, Chicago’s Navy Pier and two nights at San Francisco at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Also recently announced was Above & Beyond’s return to Red Rocks Amphitheatre on May 19 and a Miami Music Week show at The RC Cola Plant in Miami, Florida, with Seven Lions joining as special guest. This is the final stop on the tour and will be one of the most memorable events during dance music’s signature week of the year.