Album Review: Calvin Harris – Motion
3 min read
You know what I’m really good at? Lawn bowls. I’m pretty shocking at every other game so there is absolutely no reason why I should be, but I am. And very recently I’ve found out I’m really good at air hockey. Insanely good. But you know what? The world doesn’t pay so well for lawn bowls and air hockey. You know what the world does pay well for? DJs. Calvin Harris is the world’s highest paid DJ these days raking in a casual $66m in the last year. Just thought that was neat. And annoying. I’m also pretty good at writing, so lets get into it…
Calvin Harris smashed records left, right and centre in 2012 with album 18 months. The record served up hit after hit and became the first album in history to have nine top ten singles, including Bounce, Let’s Go, I Need Your Love and the ridiculously successful tracks Sweet Nothing and We Found Love. The album boasted an impressive array of collaborations with artists such as Ne-Yo, Ellie Goulding and Rihanna. And it is no different on his latest offering; fourth studio album, Motion. Not only is Harris a master of production, but he has an unrivalled ability to pick a team of artists to elevate his tracks and provide huge crossover within the genres. Like a winning coach, Harris lines up them one after the other, creating an admittedly formidable line up of talent that on paper would be hard to bet against, but seems to just fall short on game day.
MVP* awards go to Ellie Goulding once again on single Outside with her pretty, delicate vocals a perfect accompanyment to the punchy electro beat, HAIM on Pray To God and John Newman on Blame. Honourable mentions go to Tinashe on the R’n’N tinged Dollar Signs and R3hab who serve up the hardest hitting track on the album with Burnin. All About She takes the gold though, with the sensational Love Now hitting all the right notes.
On the flip side, a team is only as strong as it’s weakest player and this time the wooden spoon goes to Big Sean with lyrics on Open Wide so obnoxious they would make Kanye cringe. I been breakin’ up with girls since I was fifteen / And it’s the only thing that hasn’t got easier / A rubber is the only think that ever came between us / God damn now look at everything in between us. Another under performing player is my girl Gwen Stefani, failing to kick any goals with the underwhelming track Together.
There are other interesting little nuggets here and there on Motion with tracks like Under Control, Summer and Ecstasy all worth a listen but all in all there is nothing new to see here. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Calvin Harris – a variety of collaborating artists, a taste of different genres, huge drops and festival ready tracks that are likely to be beaten to death on the radio. It’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but hey you know what they say. If the $66m dollar formula ain’t broke…
