The essential Chris Lake songs are not one neat run of similar records. “Changes” is the 2006 breakthrough that put him on the UK singles chart. “Carry Me Away” shows the vocal-house side that followed. “Boneless” belongs to the peak-EDM chapter. “Operator (Ring Ring)” and “I Want You” document the creative reset around Black Book and HOWSLA. “Turn Off the Lights,” “Deceiver” and “In The Yuma” define the modern club catalog. “Beggin’,” “More Baby,” “Summertime Blues” and the Chemistry era show how much wider that catalog became.
This is not a ranking of the “best” Chris Lake songs. It is a career map: records chosen because they mark a documented shift in sound, scale, collaboration or control. Read chronologically, they explain how the producer described in the site’s full biography moved from progressive and electro house into mainstream dance music, then deliberately rebuilt his career around house.
“CHANGES” — THE BREAKTHROUGH
Every Chris Lake career map has to begin with “Changes.” The record first circulated instrumentally before a vocal version featuring Laura V became the version that crossed over in 2006. The Official Charts Company records a No. 27 peak on the UK Singles Chart and a No. 1 on the Official Dance Singles Chart.
The significance is larger than the chart number. Lake had spent his early career working through progressive-house records and internet message boards. “Changes” showed that his production could work simultaneously as a DJ record, a radio record and a recognizable song. Its piano line and Laura V vocal made the production legible outside the club without removing the house framework underneath it.
For anyone searching for the moment Chris Lake stopped being an underground producer with momentum and became an international touring artist, this is the cleanest answer.
“CARRY ME AWAY” — VOCAL HOUSE AFTER THE BREAKTHROUGH
“Carry Me Away,” featuring Emma Hewitt, arrived in 2007. Apple Music dates the original release to May 2007. Billboard’s Hot Dance Airplay chart had the track at No. 3 by November 10, and the December 8 chart placed it at No. 1.
The record matters because it proves “Changes” was not an isolated vocal crossover. Lake could build around a full vocal performance while keeping the rhythmic logic of a dance record intact. Emma Hewitt’s presence also connected Lake’s catalog to a larger wave of vocal electronic music that was becoming increasingly visible in the United States.
It is less representative of the stripped-down records Lake became known for a decade later, which is exactly why it belongs here. A useful career guide has to show the versions of the artist that no longer dominate the current set.
“BONELESS” — THE FESTIVAL-EDM CHAPTER
“Boneless,” credited to Steve Aoki, Chris Lake and Tujamo, was released in 2013. Apple Music dates the single to September 10, 2013. The vocal version, “Delirious (Boneless),” featuring Kid Ink, followed in 2014.
This is the record that most clearly represents Lake’s participation in the period when North American EDM was becoming a giant festival business. It is louder and more maximal than both his early progressive work and the house records that followed his later reset.
That makes “Boneless” important even if it is not the most useful record for explaining the Chris Lake sound in 2026. It is evidence of how far his career had traveled into mainstream electronic music before he began turning back toward the club-first material that would define Black Book.
“OPERATOR (RING RING)” — THE BLACK BOOK RESET
“Operator (Ring Ring)” is where the modern Chris Lake story starts to lock into place. Beatport dates the original Black Book Records release to December 2, 2016. It became the first release on the label Lake built to regain control over his own output.
The full founding story is covered in the site’s Black Book Records history: Danny Howard heard the then-unreleased track, wanted to play it on BBC Radio 1, and the release deadline accelerated the creation of the label itself.
Musically, “Operator” was a reset toward economy. The record is built around a voice, a phone-call idea and a direct house groove rather than the larger gestures associated with the preceding EDM period. It sounds like a producer narrowing the frame on purpose.
“I WANT YOU” — THE HOWSLA BRIDGE
“I Want You” arrived through OWSLA on March 22, 2017. Apple Music lists it as a one-track electronic single; more important context came weeks later when it appeared inside HOWSLA, the house-focused compilation co-curated by Lake and Skrillex.
“Operator” and “I Want You” work best as a pair in this career map. The first established Black Book and Lake’s renewed control over releases. The second connected that direction to OWSLA’s much larger audience and to a project built explicitly around four-to-the-floor house music.
That period is also where the question of what genre Chris Lake is becomes easier to answer in modern terms: house first, with tech-house language becoming increasingly relevant as the catalog developed.
“TURN OFF THE LIGHTS” — THE MODERN SIGNATURE TAKES SHAPE
“Turn Off the Lights,” with Alexis Roberts, was released on Black Book Records on February 23, 2018. Both Apple Music and Beatport identify the same release date.
The record is one of the clearest points where the Black Book-era aesthetic becomes recognizable as its own thing: a vocal with personality, a low-end-heavy house framework, enough negative space for the hook to stay exposed and an arrangement built to remain useful in DJ sets rather than burn out after one drop.
The dedicated Turn Off the Lights story documents the Alexis Roberts/Gita session, its original and Cloonee remix history and why Lake was still placing the record near the end of major sets in 2025 and 2026.
“DECEIVER” WITH GREEN VELVET — A CLUB COLLABORATION THAT FIT BOTH ARTISTS
“Deceiver,” released September 21, 2018, pairs Chris Lake with Green Velvet. Apple Music categorizes the release as House and credits Black Book Records.
The track matters because the collaboration did not require either artist to disappear. Green Velvet’s vocal presence is unmistakable; Lake’s control of groove and low end is equally obvious. It became one of the records Apple now cites when summarizing the run of club releases that established Lake’s modern career.
It also reinforces a pattern that would become central to later work: collaboration is strongest in Lake’s catalog when the other artist changes the record rather than merely decorating it.
“IN THE YUMA” WITH AATIG — ROAD-TESTING BECOMES PART OF THE STORY
“In The Yuma,” credited to Chris Lake and Aatig, was released November 11, 2022 through Black Book Records/Astralwerks. The song’s creation and development are unusual enough that they receive a dedicated article later in this series.
For this career map, its significance is that it makes Lake’s studio-to-stage loop visible. The track was connected to a livestream-era studio process, then developed through live testing before release. That relationship between writing, touring, audience response and revision would become increasingly important in how Lake discussed his production process.
It is also one of the songs Apple Music now names alongside “Turn off the Lights” and “Deceiver” when framing the years that led into Chemistry.
“BEGGIN’” AND “MORE BABY” WITH ALUNA — THE VOCAL WRITING OPENS UP AGAIN
Chris Lake and Aluna released “Beggin’” on April 20, 2023 and “More Baby” on September 15, 2023. Both were issued through Black Book Records/Astralwerks. The pairing gets its own article later because the two records make more sense as a creative relationship than as isolated features.
“Beggin’” is direct and vocal-led; “More Baby” leans harder into the strange, clipped, percussive production details Lake discussed with MusicTech that year. Together they show a producer who had mastered minimal club architecture beginning to let a vocalist occupy more of the record again.
The shift matters because it points forward. Chemistry would eventually make collaboration and songwriting central to a full-length project rather than occasional departures from club tools.
“SUMMERTIME BLUES” WITH SAMMY VIRJI AND NATHAN NICHOLSON — UK GARAGE ENTERS THE MODERN MAP
“Summertime Blues” arrived April 26, 2024, credited to Chris Lake, Sammy Virji and Nathan Nicholson. Apple Music lists it as a Black Book Records/Astralwerks release.
The record matters less because it fits a new genre label than because it captures Lake working with a producer whose instincts come from a different part of UK club music. Virji’s garage vocabulary changes the swing and movement of the record; Nicholson’s vocal keeps it song-forward.
It is a useful bridge between the stripped-down Black Book years and the wider palette of Chemistry. Lake did not need to abandon house to make room for garage influence; the catalog simply became more porous.
“IN MY HEAD” AND “EASE MY MIND” — THE CHEMISTRY ERA
By 2025, one song was no longer enough to explain what Lake was building. “In My Head,” with Amber Mark, was released April 10, 2025 and is categorized by Apple Music as House. “Ease My Mind,” with Abel Balder, later became one of the album’s clearest commercial club records.
Beatport’s year-end House report ranked Chris Lake the No. 1 best-selling House artist of 2025, Black Book Records No. 8 among House labels, and “Ease My Mind” No. 3 among the year’s best-selling House tracks. Those figures are useful because they show that expanding the musical palette did not require abandoning the audience for Lake’s house records.
The full Chemistry track-by-track story explains the larger shift. Across 15 tracks, Lake moved through house, UK garage, disco-funk, melodic electronic music and harder club production. “In My Head” and “Ease My Mind” are the clearest entry points, but tracks such as “Falling,” made with Bonobo and Alexis Roberts, show why the album cannot be reduced to a collection of singles.
WHAT THESE RECORDS SAY ABOUT THE CAREER
The recurring mistake in artist discographies is to treat every successful record as evidence of one fixed style. Chris Lake’s catalog says almost the opposite. “Changes” and “Carry Me Away” show an early producer learning how far house could travel. “Boneless” captures a period when festival EDM changed the scale. “Operator” and “I Want You” document the reset. “Turn Off the Lights” and “Deceiver” define the modern club language. “In The Yuma,” the Aluna records and “Summertime Blues” show collaboration widening the frame. Chemistry turns that widening into the main idea.
There are other important Chris Lake records, and a definitive discography is much larger than this map. The purpose here is different: to identify the records that make the next chapter of the career understandable when heard after the one before it. The separate Chris Lake remix guide maps how the same production language changes when the source material comes from other artists.