Baauer Looks Back To Move Forward On New Album ‘U’

Baauer’s new album ‘U’ feels like the sound of someone remembering why they fell in love with dance music in the first place. Out now via LUCKYME, the Grammy-nominated producer’s third full-length is his first album since PLANET’S MAD, and it arrives with a different kind of energy, less about force, more about freedom.

That shift runs through the whole record. Executive-produced by Hudson Mohawke, the long-play pulls from the disco-house hooks, French touch rush, and big-beat chaos that shaped Baauer as a teenager in London. It never leans into wasted time. It moves like a long-lost mix you wish you had found years ago, stitched together by instinct, sample flips, and a producer who clearly sounds reconnected to what excites him. We sure are excited he is back.

There is range here too. “Better” and “Nothing’s Ever Real” with Betsy hit with that full-body release, while “Calling Out For U” leans into brighter house energy in a way that feels fresh coming from him.

What makes ‘U‘ land is that it feels open. A lot of that apparently traces back to the pandemic years, when Baauer started producing live on Twitch and stopped overthinking everything. You can hear that looseness in the album. It sounds like he trusted himself again. And because of that, we have an album we get to cherish and put the backdrop of our days.