REVIEW : Evacuate The Dancefloor

German dance outfit Cascada have made a name for themselves over the past few years releasing totally banging club tunes that regularly break the 140BPM mark.
But with new album ‘Evacuate The Dancefloor’ and the title track from it – a recent No.1 hit in the UK, it seems they’re trying to satiate their hardcore fans, while steering themselves in a slightly more mainstream pop direction.
That’s not to say ‘Evacuate The Dancefloor’ the single isn’t dance – it’s more than danceable, what with it’s meaty tempo and soaring chorus, but it’s more Lady Gaga than the Cascada we’ve come to know.
‘Hold On’ kicks off with drum sticks clicking, before a pleasing guitar riff kicks in. But just as you’re lulled into a false sense of security that perhaps the album may just contain a ballad, the pulsing dance beat comes in to remind you that the band’s most certainly not wishing to abandon the audience that’s got them to where they are.
‘Everytime I Hear Your Name’ harks back to the early ‘90s when Todd Terry’s name was stamped on each and every chart remix, while ‘Ready Or Not’ ups the tempo even more to a place that nobody dared to go – nobody except perhaps Scooter.
If it’s the mainstream audience that the band’s chasing with this album, track five ‘Fever’ would be the perfect follow-up to ‘Evacuate The Dancefloor’, while ‘Hold Your Hands Up’ brings the tempo right down, allowing us to hear Nat’s smoky vocals without the thumping din.
‘Breathless’ wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Natalie Bassingthwaighte’s latest album with it’s roots firmly planted in pop territory (it sounds very similar to ‘Not For You’), while ‘Dangerous’ is smattered with ‘80s synths, remaining purely high energy dance at it’s core. ‘Why You Had To Leave’ is also a great pop/dance track.
‘Evacuate The Dancefloor’ isn’t going to win any awards, but it’s an entirely listenable pop/dance album that will satisfy both fans the band picked up courtesy of their very pop new single, and the legions of fans that have followed them on their quest for global club chart dominance.

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