The two members of Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Sven Axel Hedfors and Sebastian Ingrosso, are a pair that got their start as a trio in the wildly popular progressive-house group Swedish House Mafia in 2008. Since the duo branched off to begin Axwell Λ Ingrosso around four years ago, they have released a total of seven singles and toured the worlds most popular festival circuits many times over. Their newest track, "I Love You," is a single that features platinum-selling rap artist and Los Angeles-native Kid Ink.
If you listen to Axwell Λ Ingrosso's 7 previous singles, it isn't difficult to pick up the thematic connections in their music: uplifting with songs like "On My Way" have simplistic choruses over progressive house beats. If their background in Swedish House Mafia tells us anything, it's that stadium-sized audiences love to chant these simple phrases like "Don't You Worry Child" before confetti cannons explode— the experience of the elaborate graphics, performance, and energy characterized their live sets. The disappointing aspect of this new track is in its deviation from that theme, which begins with the repetitive string introduction which sounds borrowed from "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve and continues with the introduction of the rapper Kid Ink. It detracts from what Axwell Λ Ingrosso have proven themselves to be good at rather than incorporating it, making the track fall flat.
The soft female vocals and pop-beat are more comparable to an Alesso or a Calvin Harris song. These associations give me an idea of the direction that the track is trying to take, but this track doesn't do justice when taking into account their veteran status. Hedfors and Ingrosso were a part of the early festival scene right when dance music was still outside of the mainstream, which makes it hard to see them give in to further commercialization of the genre which encourages production of tracks like this one that are unexceptional and are clearly made for radio-play.
