ZHU’s New Album DREAMLAND 2021 out today
Today, Astralwerks released ZHU’s third studio album, DREAMLAND 2021. While he recorded the album at home, lockdown didn’t prevent the GRAMMY-nominated artist from enlisting a vast cast of guests, including pristine pop singer Yuna, R&B experimentalist Tinashe and sleek house producer Channel Tres, among others. With all these collaborators in tow, DREAMLAND 2021 feels like a manifestation of the communal feeling of the dancefloor, the warmth of a night dancing with your closest friends.
“You can’t generate the same kind of community and connection without other people,” says ZHU as he prepares to return to the stage with six sold-out DREAMROCKS shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO in May. “The lights, the music, the volume, the dancing. Electronic music is an experiential thing.”
Highlights from DREAMLAND 2021 include “Distant Lights,” which builds toward reckless, ecstatic abandon. In the final moments, ZHU murmurs a few lines that serve as something of a mission statement for the LP: “I don’t believe that music, dancing, the freedom of expression will be suppressed for much longer. They can’t—that’s against human nature.” The tracks that follow build on this idea, in both the primal spirit of the instrumentals and the desperate yearning of the vocals, which come from ZHU and his collaborators.
“DREAMLAND 2021 is about looking forward and creating a version of the future we want to exist in,” ZHU explains.
DREAMLAND 2021 Track Listing
- Lost It
- Distant Lights
- Blue Dream
- How Does It Feel (feat. Channel Tres)
- Sky Is Crying (feat. Yuna)
- Sweet Like Honey
- Yours (feat. Arctic Lake)
- SOCO
- ONLY (feat. Tinashe)
- Zhudio54 (feat. partywithray)
- Good4U (feat. Kota the Friend)
- I Need That