Words by Ross Goldenberg.
“Carry You” can only be defined as an abnormality.
Typically, Dancing Astronaut‘s Track of the Year selection is a release that originates within the same calendar year. For more reasons that one, “Carry You” is unlike many that have come before it. Immediately after Martin Garrix acquainted us with “Flashlights” — the track’s original, fan-dubbed alias following Ultra 2023 — pleas for the ID’s release hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface. But as the one-year anniversary of its debut began to inch closer, the questioned still remained: Would it ever see a release? Martin Garrix and Third Party disclosed that the wait wasn’t without reason. They were simply opting to hold off on its conversion from live exclusive to streaming upload until they were able to place what they believed needed to be a flawless vocal over what many — including us — believed to be a flawless instrumental.
They did.
In many prior instances, an instrumental’s vocal mix is unfortunately unable to live up to the potential of its lyric-less form. “Carry You” is a rare case that confirms the opposite can be possible.
On one late-January evening, we began to receive Instagram direct messages with videos from fans that were in attendance at Third Party’s show at Opium Barcelona. That first listen of “Carry You” was one of those moments where you start envisioning the future Dancing Astronaut social media posts about its release anniversary in one, five, or even ten years down the road. Martin Garrix and Third Party had called in Winona Oak — who went under her alias of Oaks for this release — as well as Declan J Donovan. They did the impossible: they perfected an already perfect piece of music with a male-female duet for the ages. Less than a month later, Garrix would open the doors to IDEM — a STMPD RCRDS EP that would later comprise of four coveted Garrix IDs — with what would eventually create the basis for our 2024 Track of the Year title.
We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves earlier this year, but 10 months removed from February 16 and we are now comfortable doubling down on the following claim: “Carry You” evokes the same feeling that “Calling (Lose My Mind)” — better known as “ID – ID” in the Dancing Astronaut universe — did 12 years prior. And while it may still be too soon to formally rank “Carriy You” beside tracks like the one Alesso, Sebastian Ingrosso, and Ryan Tedder were behind in 2012, we have minimal doubts that it has the ability to reach that designation in due time.
While we’ve decided to only name a singular Dancing Astronaut Track of the Year in 2024 — despite opting to co-name three in recent years — we still wanted to recognize two other tracks that — in our eyes — closely trail behind “Carry You.”
The first of our two honorable mentions for 2024 Track of the Year fittingly arrives via Dancing Astronaut‘s 2024 Artist of the Year. ISOxo and Knock2’s Ultra ID-turned-trap-anthem with RL Grime unmistakable reconfirmed that the genre of trap is alive and well with the making of “SMACK TALK.” Similarly to “SMACK TALK,” our second honorable mention for 2024 Track of the Year also derives from one of our end-of-year awards: Dancing Astronaut‘s Top Albums of 2024. Justice and Tame Impala’s first linked up at the top of 2024 for “One Night / All Night.” And while that initial HYPERDRAMA pairing was memorable on its own, they one-upped themselves with a second go-around on Justice’s fourth LP: “Neverender.”
Of course, the past 12 months in dance music cannot solely be boiled down to the above three releases, which is why our annual series of Dancing Astronaut’s Top 100 Tracks of the Year — in alphabetical order — has returned once again. Enjoy and Happy New Year!
Featured image: Louis van Baar
Categories: Music
