I knew that subtle advertisement would work at some point! In all seriousness, it's cool that you picked it up!
The album does indeed feature quite a new sound, and I admit that it caught me off guard. I heard the two singles before the album release, and even though they weren't proper trance, I didn't clue in that the rest of the album might be like those. Tijs remains to me as a trance master, but it seems like lately he's really trying to cater to a much larger crowd. Dare I say it... a mainstream one.
Take David Guetta as well. He's always been a house DJ, and a damn good one, but his most recent album (came out last month) is quite a bit different than his previous records. Like Tiësto, it's clear that he's trying hard to gather a much larger crowd of fans. On his album, he has only one track that doesn't feature somebody, and of the ones that do, he has huge names such as Kelly Rowland, Akon, Estelle, will.i.am and more. I have nothing against these artists, but I tend to shy away from mainstream dance, or mainstream music in general, so hearing them all together on a Guetta album is a little bizarre to say the least.
I admit that I prefer Tiësto's other albums much more than Kaleidoscope, but after listening through a few times, it has grown on me to a certain degree. This is the first Tiësto album that I can recall where there's actually a song I can't stand though. "It's Not the Things You Say" is such a bad song, I can't help but skip past it when it comes up. I can't stand the vocalist. If it wasn't for him, the song itself might not be too bad.
Aside from that, my favorite songs would have to be Kaleidoscope, You Are My Diamond, Fresh Fruit, Feel it in My Bones, Knock You Out, Louder than Boom and I Am Strong.
