Steve Aoki released his first Neon Future album in 2014 with 10 tracks. Neon Future II came the next year with 12, and Neon Future III came out three years later with 17. Neon Future IV out today has an unbelievable 27 tracks; and name any collaborator you can think of and they’re probably on this album.
Neon Future IV contains a who’s who of featured artists, including Icona Pop, Desiigner, Torey Lanez, Zooey Deschanel, Monsta X, Backstreet Boys, Mike Shinoda, will.i.am, Matthew Koma, Alan Walker, Travis Barker, Sting, Felix Jaehn, and more. And, despite being 27 tracks and just over an hour and a half long, incredibly, it never feels like it’s dragging or getting stale. Every single song brings something new to the table, whether it’s a brighter, more pop/singer songwriter feel or something with a heavy electro house vibe.
The album rollout is interesting because thirteen of the tracks were released as singles in 2019 and early 2020, easily enough for a full album on their own. But there’s still fourteen tracks that still hadn’t been released! Releasing 13 new original tracks in one year is incredible enough on its own, but this sort of album and incredible tracklist is simply heretofore unheard of in dance music.
“The central force of Neon Future is more about the narrative of the evolution of Neon Future I, II, III and IV. If you listen to each album back to back, you can hear this musical evolution and that is most important for my fans to take away. Each volume in the series goes hand in hand with the songs that are meant to tell our future story.”
Also featured on the album are some names you’ve never heard before. Track 17, “Homo Deus,” is named after the book Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, and features its writer: historian, philosopher, and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari. The album also includes Kita Sovee in the intro and outro, otherwise known as the character modeled after Aoki from his Neon Future comic series with Impact Theory that explores the world of techno-optimism. Also on the album is Sydney Sierota, a name you might not recognize at first, but one that definitely carries its own pedigree as lead singer of Echosmith.
Standout tracks on the album include “One True Love” with Slushii, “1 4 U” with Zooey Deschanel, “Do It Again” wth Alok, and “Cut You Loose” with Matthew Koma. Check out Neon Future IV below!
Photo via Rukes.com
