True Colors (Zedd album)
True Colors is the second studio album by Russian-German electronic music producer Zedd released on 15 May 2015 by Interscope Records. The album features collaborations with singers Jon Bellion, Troye Sivan, Selena Gomez, rapper Logic, upcoming production duo Botnek and bands such as Echosmith, Bahari and X Ambassadors, as well as uncredited production by Rock Mafia and KDrew.
The first single from the album, "I Want You to Know" featuring Selena Gomez was released on 23 February 2015. The single entered the top 20 on Billboard Hot 100, at number 17. On 14 April 2015, Zedd released another track, "Addicted to a Memory" that features the group Bahari, that was released as a promotional single alongside the pre order of the album on iTunes. "Beautiful Now", featuring the guest vocals of Jon Bellion, was released on iTunes as the album's second official single. The song was released on 13 May 2015. Zedd embarked on the True Colors Tour from August 2015 to January 2016 in support of the album. The album has achieved moderate success, peaking at number one for Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums, as well as charting on various international charts.
Background
In late February during an interview with a radio station, when answering a question on his album-making processes, Zedd stated that "I'm really far advanced in my album right now. It's probably still going to take me a good month, month-and-a-half to finish it, you know, the last touches. And then depending on if I can keep that promise of one-and-a-half months, it's going to come out sooner or later!" In the middle of March, Zedd took on his Twitter and uploaded a series of short videos that teased True Colors. The videos uploaded unveiled a website that was mostly empty except for Zedd's logo and a timer counting down to the March 18, at 5 P.M.On 7 April 2015, Zedd finally released the name, artwork, and release date of the album via Instagram. The artwork features a tree with an array of bright colours as the leaves. He also announced that T-Mobile, through a promotional partnership, offered 250,000 free downloads of the remix of "I Want You to Know" to the fans who followed T-Mobile's Facebook and Twitter on the morning of 8 April.
Promotions
The website revealed the start of a colour-themed promotional campaign for the album that covered 10 North American venues, with a new song to be premiered in each location. When talking about his album, Zedd remarked that he "...wanted fans to experience the album in a whole new way". He further said that each song is associated with a color, and this is evident through his promotional tour, in which each location has different color scheme to match with the vibe of the song previewed in the location. Zedd commented during the promotional campaign in Los Angeles that, "To me, certain things sound a certain color. A lot of reverb will always sound cold, which will always make me think blue. On this song, the drop is very energetic and very aggressive, kind of like fire, too, so this one was super easy to pick orange." In Austin, the theme colour was purple, while yellow was used in Phoenix, and blue was used in Denver. The list of places visited by the tour were:| Date | City | Final location | Song previewed | Theme color |
| 19 March 2015 | Austin, Texas | Longhorn Cavern State Park | "Addicted to a Memory" | |
| 30 March 2015 | Los Angeles, California | A desert near Joshua Tree, California | "Straight Into the Fire" | Orange |
| 9 April 2015 | Phoenix, Arizona | Lake Pleasant | "Bumble Bee" | Yellow |
| 14 April 2015 | San Francisco, California | Alcatraz Island | "Transmission" | |
| 27 April 2015 | Denver, Colorado | The Stanley Hotel | "Illusion" | |
| 8 May 2015 | Chicago, Illinois | Shedd Aquarium | "Beautiful Now" | |
| 10 May 2015 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Fonthill Castle | "Papercut" | White |
| 12 May 2015 | Atlanta, Georgia | The Inn at Serenbe | "Daisy" | |
| 14 May 2015 | Las Vegas, Nevada | Grand Canyon | "Done With Love" | |
| 18 May 2015 | New York City, New York | Empire State Building | "True Colors" |
Critical reception
Upon its release, True Colors received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. According to Metacritic, which is based on a weighted average score out of 100 from ratings and reviews from music critics, the album received an average score of 60 points, based on 2 positive and 3 mixed reviews. The album won Best Electronic Album at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.Singles
"I Want You to Know" was released as the first single from the album on 23 February 2015. It features vocals by Selena Gomez and received generally positive reviews from critics. The music video was released on 10 March 2015, directed by Brent Bonacorso and edited by Anthony Chirco. In a promotion with T-Mobile, a remixed version of the song by Milo & Otis was given to fans who followed the instructions given."Beautiful Now" was released as the second single from the album on 13 May 2015. It features vocals by Jon Bellion. A teaser was released for the music video for this song on 26 May 2015 and the music video was released on 11 June 2015.
"Papercut" was released as the third single from the album on 17 July 2015. It features vocals by South African-born Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan.
American singer Kesha appeared during Zedd's slot at the 2016 Coachella festival to perform Zedd's album-titled song "True Colors" on 17 April 2016. A studio version of the collaboration was released as a single on 29 April 2016. Rolling Stone editor Brittany Spanos called it a "triumphant return" for Kesha.
Other songs
"Addicted to a Memory" was released as a promotional track to be downloaded when pre-ordered on iTunes beginning 14 April 2015 and was subsequently released to streaming sites such as Spotify and Beats Music later that day. This five-minute track features the American girl group Bahari."Bumble Bee", a collaboration with Canadian production duo and Dim Mak Records artists Botnek, was announced as the next promotional single to be released from the album. An extended mix of the track was released on 10 July 2015 through Beatport. On the same day, Botnek posted a 31-track DJ mix titled "The Bumble Bee Mix!" to their SoundCloud page in celebration of the release. The song became the album's only collaborative track, as well as one of the few club-styled tracks on the album.
Track listing
Notes- "Bumble Bee" interpolates "Break Through" by Roger Troutman.
Charts