The Stupidly Late Review

Calvin Harris released an album about four weeks ago. We knew about it; we even wrote about it. We just forgot to put the review online. Oh well, for the record:

Calvin Harris - I Created Disco

Opening your album with a pastiche track might not be the best way of ramming your ‘serious artist’ credentials down people’s throats while simultaneously complaining about being marketed as a pop star, but that’s what Calvin Harris does on ‘I Created Disco’.

The track in question, ‘Merrymaking At My Place’ is a near-perfect aping of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’ and sets a knowing tone that continues throughout the rest of the album. It’s obvious that Mr. Harris knows shitloads about pop music and that he uses this knowledge to produce very well-made songs, but the question remains: does he mean any of it?

From the ironic cries of ‘Oh!’ that open the album to the title track’s surreal monologue, to the frequent dips into bizarre cruise ship funk, it becomes difficult to fathom whether this is a serious stab at making a pop/dance crossover album, or just an elaborate joke.

Either way what is indisputable is that the tunes here are plentiful and massive. ‘Vegas’, ‘The Girls’ and ‘Acceptable In The 80s’ all sound like attractive old friends you want to sleep with, while the amazing ‘I Created Disco’ is easily the equal of anything off Daft Punk’s ‘Homework’.

So while the album might have a whiff of Media Studies about it, it is undeniably fun (cruise ship funk aside), packed with tunes and therefore destined to soundtrack more than a little merrymaking this summer. It will probably sound brilliant at a barbecue, put it that way.

7 out of 8.

Additional points
:: There are 14 tracks but two of them are not proper songs.
:: The special edition comes in a GLOW IN THE DARK sleeve.
:: Which means it glows, in the dark.
:: Stick that up your arse, Sophie ‘Minimalist’-Bextor.