Just Be is the second studio album by Dutch DJ Tiësto. It was released on 6 April 2004 in the Netherlands and 15 May2004 in the United States. The album features BT, Kirsty Hawkshaw, and Aqualung on vocals. There is also a remake of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings". The album's singles were "Love Comes Again", "Traffic", "Just Be", and "Adagio for Strings". The track "Sweet Misery" was originally written for Evanescence but it did not meet the deadline for the release of their album.
Style
The album begins with "Forever Today" which is composed of soft sounds of strings which includes a strong bassline later in the song. Its second track, featuring BT, is the second single from the album "Love Comes Again". The song uses Latin percussion sounds which are followed by BT's vocals. The third track is the uplifting "Traffic". Then he introduces his first work with Joanne Lloyd, titled "Sweet Misery", it is a chill out track with dark vocals and flowing synth lines, it is an unexpected break from the usually expected sounds of Tiësto. He continues by performing the title track of his previous album compilation Nyana. Tiësto's first down tempo track in the album, "UR" features vocals of Matt Hales from Aqualung and was remixed by Junkie XL and released as a single with "A Tear In The Open" as its B-side. Another down tempo track in which Tiësto collaborated along half of Gabriel & Dresden, Josh Gabriel in "Walking on Clouds" and Kirsty Hawkshaw's vocals, the song was also released as an instrumental version. "A Tear In The Open" is played in track eight and was composed by Tiësto, Geert Huinink and Daniël Stewart. The title track "Just Be" features Hawkshaw again and became a successful song as it was included in Gabriel & Dresden's . Then the final track of the album, "Adagio for Strings" begins with a hard bassline which builds up until the melodic breakdown rises. The sounds of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" have been featured in movies such as Platoon and on William Orbit's Pieces in a Modern Style.
Reception
Critical reception
Upon its release, Just Be received mixed reviews from music critics. Jack Smith of BBC Music gave the album a mixed review, calling the album, "a more concentrated trance session aimed at those expecting to hear a replica of his live DJ set." Smith goes on to say that Tiësto "is giving the people exactly what they want, although at times in so doing he is guilty of sounding a little too clichéd in the process." David Jeffries of AllMusic gave the album 2.5 stars out of 5, stating, "A better album to watch lava lamps slowly flow than for frantically twirling glowsticks, Just Be is as moody as the black-and-white photographs throughout the booklet, until a couple mindless tracks screw it all up." Kevin Hainey of Exclaim! gave the album a negative review, stating, "You couldnt find dance music more thinly ethereal, fluffily uplifting and overtly cheesy if Yanni, John Tesh and Kitaro met up with Chris Sheppard and Vengaboys to record a three-disc Buddha Bar mega-mix."
Track listing
All tracks produced by Tiësto, with additional production by DJ Waakop Reijers. ;Sample credits
"Traffic" contains a sample from the track "Psykofuk" by Sean Deason.
"A Tear in the Open" contains a vocal sample from the track "Vocal Planet" by Spectrasonics.
Credits
"A Tear in the Open" Composer: Geert Huinink & Daniël Stewart. Vocal samples from "Vocal Planet" by Spectrasonics, originally a folk song called Ailein duinn that was first featured in the movie Rob Roy.
"Forever Today" Composer: Geert Huinink & Daniël Stewart
"Love Comes Again" Producer: BT
* BT appears courtesy of Binary Acoustics.
"Traffic" samples from "Psykofuk" by Sean Deason.
"Sweet Misery" Composer: Dan Muckala, Joanne Lloyd & Jon Ingoldby
"UR" Composer: Matt Hales, Michael Scherchen & Naomi Striemer
* Aqualung appears courtesy of First Column Management.
"Walking on Clouds" Producer: Josh Gabriel & Kirsty Hawkshaw
* Josh Gabriel appears courtesy of Nettwerk Management and Kirsty Hawkshaw appears courtesy of Impro Management.
"Just Be" Composer: Judie Tzuke, James Wiltshire & Kirsty Hawkshaw
The Just Be: Train Tour is a Tiësto tour in support of his album Just Be. The event began in Breda, on Thursday, May 20, Ascension Day; Tiësto was honored by the mayor of The Hague as an officer of the Royal-Nassau. At 11:00 AM, everyone is on board and Tiësto's special train leaves from platform 1 to the first stop, Eindhoven. He is driven by a car with blacked out windows and escorted by two policemen on motorbikes, then he arrives at a stage built on a huge trailer of a truck housing with a huge sound system. Disc jockey Barry Paff from Radio 538 is says Tiësto will be there in five minutes. He finally appeared on stage and began spinning "Traffic", followed by his first single from Just Be, "Love Comes Again". He finishes his presentation and goes back to the train station toward his next stop in Utrecht. Utrecht is a small town for press purposes only, no one thought that he would play in there, but some people began to gather, as if the rumors were being spread, even though people started to realize about what was going on, Tiësto still played. Then he went back to the station to his final destination, Amsterdam. Some parts of the train were mini-discos complete with a bar and a sound system while others were relaxing zones to sit down and chat with other fans. It also makes for great pump up music. Amsterdam is also the location for the last promotional stop and the official release party which will take place later that same night at the Heineken Music Hall. It's a venue that was nominated for the highest prize in the concert industry for the third consecutive time that year. Tiësto hosts his official release party which featured a set along with a special live PA by Kirsty Hawkshaw, and support from Black Hole Recordings' deejay's Cor Fijneman, Ton T.B., Mark Norman, Montana and Le Blanc.
