Long-running U.K. dance group
Above & Beyond returned in early 2015 with their fourth studio album,
We Are All We Need. The album represented their first new material since 2011's Group Therapy and also was the first album by the group not to include contributions from longtime collaborator
Richard Bedford. The group finds its pop-friendly take on trance instead aided by vocalists such as
Zoë Johnston on the slinky, midtempo titular track and
Alex Vargas on the bounding, anthemic single "Blue Sky Action" as well as many more of the album's more uplifting tracks. The core trio of instrumentalists and electronic composers
Jono Grant,
Paavo Siljamäki, and
Tony McGuinness again deliver a densely layered but disarmingly straightforward wash of ambient synth tones and driving trance beats over the course of the lengthy album's 16 tracks. ~ Fred Thomas