In March this year I went to see trance-god Tiësto in Tokyo as part of his ‘Elements of Life’ tour, which I must say was by far the best live DJ set i have ever been to in my life – I can’t listen to ‘Traffic’ without being bought back to that night. Since then I’ve been listening to my collection of Tiësto music and i have rediscovered my complete and utter love of his album ‘Just Be’.
‘Just Be’ was released four years ago back in 04 and was Tiësto’s 2nd solo album effort. The songs are not only brilliant in their own right, but the construction and careful selection of the album is just beautiful. The opening track ‘Forever Today’ starts off by slowly relaxing us and drawing us in the music with soft strings which slowly lead into a bass line later on in the track. This is followed by the hit ‘Love Comes Again’ featuring BT which is not only great to listen to at home but is amazing in a club. One of the stand-out memories of his show this year was that song – at the chorus he turned off the music and thousands of sweaty trance fans sang with Tiësto as he held his arms up in the air – awesome. ‘UR’ and ‘A Tear in the Open’ are both beautful songs, both in their musical construction and in the feelings they convey. A lyric which has stayed with me from ‘UR’ and gets me everytime is:
“My blood is in your blood
My breathe in your mouth
Just trying to keep the world
From smashing crashing in”
I don’t know what it is about that song, but the raw emotion i feel when i listen to that is really something.
A great album and a really good place to start for people who haven’t listening to either much Tiësto or much trance music.
Standout track: Live/At a club: Traffic At home: UR
Track Listing
| 1. | “Forever Today” | 11:59 | |
| 2. | “Love Comes Again” | feat. BT | 8:06 |
| 3. | “Traffic” | 5:24 | |
| 4. | “Sweet Misery” | feat. Joanne Lloyd | 7:29 |
| 5. | “Nyana” | 6:42 | |
| 6. | “UR“ | feat. Matt Hales | 5:56 |
| 7. | “Walking On Clouds” | feat. Kirsty Hawkshaw | 7:23 |
| 8. | “A Tear In The Open“ | 9:22 | |
| 9. | “Just Be” | feat. Kirsty Hawkshaw | 8:39 |
| 10. | “Adagio for Strings” | 7:23 |
Release Date: 6 April 2004
Label: Black Hole Records
Genre: Trance/Progressive Trance
Rating: 4.5/5 – My Favourite solo Tiësto album.
