Armin van Buuren Feat. Jaren – Unforgivable

once upon a time i play this track. just to remember old times when i was much younger and a bit interested in "trance" music. nowadays i can clearly say that it has almost nothing to do with trance but that poppy sweety and melancholic sound makes you feel a bit better:)

This song absolutely sucks. I’ve tried to give it the benefit of the doubt in its various mixes, and Jaren’s lyrics are just stupid—stupid like her haircut. She’s got that “let me speak to the manager” look; no wonder she got dumped. And as far as Armin here, he’s just trying to attach himself to the popular sounds of the moment, like always. He’s a poser.

I had a pet peeve with Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren up until I listened to this single.
Jaren's lyrics and vocals are top notch. The remixes are great. Even her (ex-)husband and Mitiska do a good job here.

As the official follow up of ‘Imagine’ tracks ‘Going Wrong’ and ‘In & Out of Love’, ‘Unforgivable’ is set and ready to hit the airwaves. Armin van Buuren’s team-up with the lovely singer Jaren resulted in this beautiful beat-ballad, capturing from the first notes. To make this all complete, they shot a complimentary music video which will be online soon.

We already know Jaren from her work with Matt Cerf and fellow producer Shawn Mitiska. As Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren they scored several hits, such as ‘Light the Skies’, ‘Saved Again’ and ‘You Never Said’. With only 24 years of age yet skilled and talented enough to go on for many more to come, Jaren is considered ‘the new voice of dance music’. She has been touring along with Armin to perform live at the Armin Only: Imagine concerts and already managed to move the Dutch, Polish, Australian and Belgian crowd.

‘Unforgivable’ was remixed by both First State and Stoneface & Terminal. First State pushed the tempo and gave it a rich sound in two versions, the ‘Rough Mix’ and the ‘Smooth Mix’ while Stoneface & Terminal turned the track into a pure trancer. ‘Unforgivable’ might just be unforgettable.

"Unforgivable" was one of the tracks on "Imagine" that I never revisisted unless I was playing through the entire CD. However, this single release has made the track a regular feature in my daily iTunes playlist and it's down to two things: exceptional sound quality and exceptional remixes all 'round.

You may ask why I bring up sound quality, well, first of all both remixes have a style of beat that I'm really drawn to (smoothly produced beats with busy percussion and hard snares) and it makes listening through the single an even better experience for me. Secondly, anyone who bought Armin's last single "In And Out Of Love" will be painfully aware of how badly Armada messed up the sound quality. Thankfully there was no such error this time and all the mixes sound beautiful at 320kbps.

As for individual tracks, the mixes themselves are very very good indeed. The original is an expertly produced progressive track heavily influenced by Benno's signature 'electro' sound, and as per usual Jaren shines in her vocal performance. As good as it is, I'd argue the main draws of the single are the First State remixes. The Smooth mix has been a regular set-opener for Armin himself and has become very popular due to its exposure and brilliant reworking of the bassy original into a warm progressive track with extra melody. The Rough mix, as you can imagine, goes for the opposite effect and showcases First State's tougher and techier side which helps to add an extra vengeful element to Jaren's lyrics. Scorchin'.
Last but not least is the remix by Stoneface & Terminal, who in my opinion were quite an odd choice to remix this track as instrumentals are their thing. Nevertheless, it resulted in a great uplifting rework that steps the tempo up and delivers a fantastic melody in the breakdown to cap things off.

Although it wasn't included on this first release, there is also a cool Cerf & Mitiska remix on the later Armada Digital package that goes for a deeper progressive house sound. Like the Stoneface & Terminal mix, things don't get interesting until the breakdown but when it gets going it'll leave an impression.

So that's *six* high quality mixes. What else can I say but highly recommended!