Quite often, when you listen to an artist's recorded output, you can sense what they were going through at the time of writing it. You can feel their pain, their sorrow, their joy, the anticipation of lust. It's this shared experience that makes listening to music such a cathartic, enriching experience. And so it is, listening to Calvin Harris' third album '18 Months,' that you can almost feel the heavy tread of the sole of the record company's boot in the back of Harris' back. As you dive into round #34 of certified dance-floor-filler clipped drum beats and bolstered synths, you, too, may feel the pressure on your shoulders starting to weigh down. That, we can presume, was the very same pressure that Harris must have felt after 'We Found Love' went stellar last year. 'More of that, please Calvin,' they must have asked. So we have more of it. A lot more of it.
We got a lot more in the way of guest vocalists, as Harris stepped back from the microphone and let the really famous people do the talking. At times, it's inspired. Kelis' turn on 'Bounce' is sparky, buoyed by 8-bit style beats and infused with joyousness. At other times, however, it seems that Harris is masking the lack of dimension in his production by asking a reliable stream of singers to bring their own brand of variety to the table for him. Both Ellie Goulding and Florence Welch provide some of the more interesting additions to the album. Still, it's a disappointment when the tracks on which they appear remain carelessly placed in the canon of formulaic electro-pop that Harris has come to rely on so heavily. In both cases, he appears to be exploring some nuances of his own ability, but seems to freak out at his own sense of exploration and before long, the tracks are whomping and whooping along just like all the others.
'I Need Your Love' starts with a degree of subtlety (well, 'subtle' in Calvin Harris terms, which isn't really subtle at all and involves a pretty dramatic piano-led introduction); the perfect complement to Ellie Goulding's 'don't touch me I might snap' vocals. The relieving switch in tempo lasts less than 30 seconds before the oppressive onslaught of synthetic drums kicks in. Listening to the fifteen tracks contained herein - some of which, listeners will be familiar with, such as the Rihanna vehicle ',' which was first released last year - there's a sense that Calvin Harris only has one gear and there's a sense that he's locked into it, no matter how hard he tries to break away.
Continue reading: Calvin Harris - 18 Months Album Review
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