Merry Christmas from Illenium, Dabin, and Lights.

It doesn’t take much to put dance music Twitter on high alert in this day and age, and Illenium knew exactly how to drum up excitement when he broadcasted that he wasn’t leaving 2020 in his rearview just yet, even after unloading “Nightlight” and “Paper Thin” this fall. How Illenium and Dabin had still yet to appear on the same collaborative headline was incomprehensible, but the two longtime friends and tourmates had been moving towards putting that to rest dating back to December of 2019. Exactly one year later, with a catastrophic pandemic in between, Illenium and Dabin have finally brought fans’ melodic pipe dream to reality, calling in vocal backing from Lights to unwrap a timely Christmas morning gift, “Hearts on Fire.”

Let’s just preface this second paragraph by stating that if you’re still combing through your track of the year hopefuls, it’ll only take one playback of “Hearts on Fire” to add it on there. Illenium and Dabin’s first-ever union couldn’t have fulfilled any more of the monolithic expectations surrounding it if it tried. Melding the duo’s unexampled emotive intellect through blissful acoustics and Lights’ anthemic hymns, “Hearts on Fire” incites daydreams of what it’d be like to someday experience it in person.

On top of arriving as a holiday giveaway, “Hearts on Fire” doubles as an early birthday present for Illenium, who celebrates his milestone 30th trip around the sun on December 26. The single is also grouped with Illenium’s prior two counterparts on Spotify, potentially alluding to a larger project on the way.

Featured image: Emp Media

Tags: dabin, illenium, lights

Categories: Music