Between his Radio 1 show on BBC, dedication to answering every email received through his website, and club DJing in all four corners of the globe, Judge Jules is one busy guy. After spending years playing other people’s music in his club sets, and then talking about and dissecting it via his hugely popular Radio 1 show, Jules finally puts his own work on the line with a 12 track single CD artist album.

Jules is one of the world’s most well known DJs in the world and has played in every club across the globe worth naming. Through his Radio 1 show he has grown to be one of the world’s most known radio DJs, with his show going to all four corners of the globe. While his main area is that of radio host and club DJ, that is not to say he hasn’t had his hand in production. He reached massive international success as one half of Hi-Gate with the timeless trance anthem “Pitchin (In Every Direction)”. On top of that he has been very select with remixes and reworks and single releases, but this album is by far the greatest step into the world of production for Jules.

The first song, Alma Fe, kicks off the album immediately in an up-tempo fashion with a big-room euro club trance sound. This song really typifies the style of music that Judge Jules plays in his much adored club sets around the world. It’s a good opener with a nice piano interlude and breakdown. Ordinary Day is the second track and is a little darker with a nice big vocal accompanying it. So Special is the big single off this album for the Judge. The radio friendly anthem has huge crossover appeal and could be played from your top 40 club DJs to your trance-specific club event or night. The original is dabbling a little bit on the cheesier side of trance but with the right remix or rework has the potential to be a very solid trance anthem.

Keeps On Slipping changes the tempo a little bit on the album, with a more tech influenced sound. It’s followed by Without Love, which is an uplifting trance number. Putesta Del Sol is an interesting instrumental. It pulses with aggressive energy and is spiced up by some upbeat Spanish guitar work. The Night You Kept Me Warm is a bit of a standout song with its smooth trance feel, gentle female vocal (courtesy of Saf), and some tasty synth work as the track builds toward the end. Keep Me Running is a dark trancer with a very cheesy vocal. I think if you took the poor vocal out of this track it would sound a lot, lot better. While Requiem For Rascals and The Serpent bring the album home nicely, it is the quirky little Rumble that catches my attention as the last track. It has a nice little warp to it and ensures that the album finishes on a good note.

This album for me is solid without being spectacular and unless you’re a hardcore Judge Jules fan I wouldn’t really be racing out to buy it. The album unfortunately just has the same sound to it all throughout and there’s no real diversity. This would be okay if the tracks supplied in that ‘same sound’ that I’m talking about were of world-class standard, but I just can’t see many, if any, of these 12 tracks turning into timeless trance anthems. If you’re thinking about buying this album it might be best to get on the net and have a listen to some sample tracks first. Highlights in particular being Diversion, Ordinary Day and the radio friendly So Special.

While it is a pretty good debut artist album it just isn’t the sort of CD that in 5 years time, when you’re moving house and stumble across it CD in your collection, will have you racing to the stereo to play one more time.