In contrast, much of Calvin Harris’ music, though thoroughly entrenched in dance culture, is typically not boring or dull, and is often not only danceable, but highly listenable too. Its not exactly IDM (that’s intelligent dance music to you uninitiated), but I get the impression that Harris has a genuine passion for creating good music as opposed to the typical assemblage style of most dance tracks. This makes a difference - one can often tell aurally if a track has been composed and the personality and consideration apparent therein, which typically makes better music. An additional aspect of Harris’ work that I enjoy is the manner in which he transposes his music to the live medium openly and often. Here his tracks become true songs as opposed to dance music, which makes them more multifaceted and charismatic. This ability to convert Harris’ recorded music to live so effectively derives not only from the competent, layered musicality, but also the humorous, well structured lyrics. Whilst the choruses typically maintain repetitive, simple lines (e.g. “The Girls”), the verses and general narrative of Harris’ tracks have an enjoyable humour to them that is deeper and more engaging than your average dance track. This humour was especially notable in his first album I Created Disco, whose lyrics typically consisted of ironic but affectionate pastiches of general dance music concepts and cultures.
Unfortunately, this lyrical humour seems to have notably slipped from Harris’ new album. For example, whilst the title track does yield a certain playful nod towards weekend culture contextually speaking, the literal lyrics are essentially dry of humour. The first single from the new album “I’m Not Alone” was additionally devoid of drollery – although the lyrics to both releases do hold some depth and subtle poetry within them. A further negative aspect of this album is Harris’ liberal usage of best-forgotten 90s synth timbres. Many of these timbres are jagged, harsh, and aurally irritating, and often sound so dated they could have been excavated from the vaults of DJ Jean or Chicane. Whilst these sounds are literally poor midi shit-ness, they are also sonically reminiscent of the awful time for pop music that was the late 90s. Furthermore, these timbres work to entrench Ready for the Weekend purely within crap old commercial dance music camp, as opposed to something that engages with dance on a more innovative level.
On the whole then, I haven’t really warmed to this album, and whilst Harris obviously has considerable ability, I don’t personally feel it has been channelled in as an effect a way as his previous work. Having said that, I must admit I have warmed to the “Ready for the Weekend” single. Though initially put off by the cheesy 90s style female chorus vocals, I really enjoyed the jaunty rhythm and fantastic piano timbre. Indeed, you could consider there to be a distinct amount of humour in this track instrumentally speaking at least. Furthermore, I must admit that when Harris’ first album came out, I was not really impressed with that first release either. It actually took me quite a while to truly get Harris’ appeal, that he wasn’t just trying to singlehandedly resurrect dance music. So maybe this album will grow on me – and I really hope it, ‘cause I have to admit, it feels like Calvin Harris does deserves it. But currently this really does feel like a weaker body of work, though of course if dance music is your thing, maybe you’ll get it a bit better than me.
