Music, Rambling
Okay, two minutes of beat buildup to only add the vocal to the track is a bit excessive, but I believe the full 9 minute long version of this remix is needed to get the full "experience".
The original version of this track (or as it's often named, 'Armin's Tribal Feel') is an 9 minute long pumping trance track. The track is often regarded as a classic for the genre of trance.
Music, Rambling
Simon & Shaker's take on The Sound Of Goodbye is probably one of the most unique electronic tracks I've heard in recent memory.
Skipping past the admittedly excessive ~2:15 intro, the duo adds a lower octave to the vocal track as it enters, adding a bit of accessibility to those with lower vocal registers. After the verse is a short breakdown, after which a third-second-first pluck motif begins. This is the melody that quite a bit of the track is built on.
Then, 3:42 happens.
Music, Rambling
And this is the part that REALLY gets me. After another quick breakdown, as a bass guitar-like synth fades in, and we get something really special: a rock-like, almost industrial feeling retextualization of the verse. The instrumental slowly builds up and up in energy, until we get the explosive chorus at 4:42, complete with a powerful guitar line that basically compliments De Graaf's vocals very well. Then, with another breakdown, we start to hear... the original's main melody.
Music, Rambling
As the vocals say the song's title a few times, we get the third drop of the song, one that combines some of the best parts of both the original and this remix: That plucking motif and the synth melody from the Tribal Feel. And after that, the track fades out into the bass and drums, including an outro equal in length to the intro.
Overall, other than the 2 minutes surrounding the track on either side, this remix is probably one of my favorite songs in general.
9/10
Music, Rambling
So as with many other "classic" tracks, there is a remix package, and in this case, we got 'The Sound Of Goodbye (Remixes) (2007)'. Yes, the song has a couple other remix compilations, including one that came out this year.
The other remixes on the package range from good (Yvan & Dan Daniel, EDX) to... whatever Nic Chagall is doing (seriously, adding an extra drum loop and looping one word of the acappella over most of the song shouldn't count as a remix).
Then comes the last one.