Seven Ways

AMG Review of Seven Ways

Dean Carlson
All Music Guide

Seven Ways suggests a time in Paul van Dyk's career when, weary and tottering from the success of "For an Angel," the Teutonic favorite was at his wit's end to unearth anything even halfway as interesting to throw back to the tangential adoration of his newly discovered worldwide fan base. Still, many have faired worse. Top-quality singles like the soothing, prickling "Forbidden Fruit" (burglary of Orbital's "Halcyon + On + On" notwithstanding) or the weltering, Kraftwerk-inspired "Words" know where they're going -- even if van Dyk doesn't -- but, with an innumerable stockpile of wispy rance pottage clogging any potential forward-looking thrust, it's hard to tell if the final message is one of occasional post-breakthrough recalibration or of a jagged, confused transitional album that strums along for a few years until van Dyk would happen upon the anthemic immensity of "We Are Alive."