Super8 & Tab – Reformation Album Review

Track List

True Love
Cosmo
Seconds Away
Falling Into You
Pressure
Mega
Burn
Noom
Venture
Mist
Osaka
Quest
Aave

Finnish trance duo Super8 & Tab have had quite the ride since they blended their unique sound together back in 2005. After 2 albums and countless tours around the world, the two trance icons return with Reformation, an album showcasing a new sound fused with EDM influences and big-room vocals while still maintaining that raw, euphoric feel their music has always excelled in. Although the album acts as a collation of tracks the duo have composed in recent history, a few of the tracks feel a little too similar in theme and composition with a second half of the album largely underwhelming after a breathtaking first part. Still, there’s enough here to make this an enjoyable trance album, even if it pales in comparison to some of Super8 & Tab’s earlier work.

As mentioned before, Reformation really feels like an album of two halves. The first full of big, vocal-dominant tracks and floor-filling anthems before easing up for a second half that can’t quite match the same breathless pace in the first. Beginning with one of their newest songs True Love, Super8 & Tab set the tone early on, launching into a barrage of anthemic trance tunes including the show-stopping 2017 hit Cosmo and 2016’s summer smash hit Mega. From here the album swings between vocal and instrumental trance into the second half of the album that buckles under the weight of a very impressive opening 6 or so tracks.

Although it still manages to keep your attention and there’s some good compositional work done to generate some big trance anthems, some of the tracks feel a little too similar in style to what’s come before. The biggest culprit is the track Mist which uses the same instruments, musical composition and chord structure as Mega. Listening to these two tracks back to back only further emphasises this and nestled around it are various songs that just can’t quite compare to the others. In a way, some of this could easily be solved by mixing the track list up a little and seperating Mist and Mega as far as possible on the album.

As a personal favourite, Burn hits the right notes between chilling vocals in the two verses and big-room synths for the chorus but there are sure to be some that lament this new style that feels like a deviation from what the group have always excelled at with previous songs like Helsinki Scorchin and Suru. Reformation is likely to be an album that divides opinion because of this. There’s still some good material here though, with a mixture of vocal and instrumental tracks showcasing Super8 & Tab’s talents, but die-hard fans are likely to be divided by this new style the duo are taking. Still for everyone else, there’s a solid euphoric trance album here and fans of this genre should find some enjoyment here, even if the album itself is a bit of a far cry from what the duo have done before.