Netsky’s debut, self-titled album on Hospital Records in 2010 made people take notice. His follow-up, 2, in 2012, cemented his status as a paragon of drum & bass. Then 3 in 2016 demonstrated his ability to make engaging pop/DnB crossover with stellar collaborations.
3 was released on Sony after he parted ways with Hospital, and was supposed to release a follow-up called Palmtrees & Powerlines, but for whatever reason, that was scrapped and turned into his Abbot Kinney EP, which was actually released on Universal. He released a couple more tracks in 2019, but at the beginning of 2020, he announced his return to Hospital to huge applause from fans.
Now, Second Nature is officially out. Its sonic make up is wildly different than the stricter DnB of Netsky, the mix of soft and hard on 2, or the brilliant pop of 3. In contrast, Second Nature sticks more closely to liquid with the exception of a few tracks.
Only three singles were released off the massive 18-track album, which at times feels like overkill. There isn’t so much anything that feels like “filler” on the album, only that it sometimes feels like there was too much when other tracks could have been given a bigger focus.
With other albums from Metrik, The Prototypes, Sub Focus & Wilkinson, and more coming out of drum & bass this year, it’s one of the genre’s best years since 2013 in my opinion. With so many incredible albums, what someone likes or doesn’t will mostly come down to personal taste. For me, Second Nature unfortunately didn’t live up to 2 or 3, and it’s got a completely different vibe than our #1 drum & bass album of the year, Ten Thousand Feet & Rising.
But at a base level, Second Nature is nothing to scoff at and has plenty of incredible tracks that are definitely going to get big. Check out the full album below!
Photo via Rukes.com
