well if we are to believe the skinny back-story of the entity that is calvin harris, then surely this has to be one of 2007 most weird risings to fame and supposed fortune currently out there.

supposedly plucked out of myspace obscurity, the bespectacled man who made this album in his so called calvinharrisbeats studio (ie bedroom) using his trusty old amiga based home equipment, is now rubbing shoulders with groove armada (tour and remix mates), kylie (production duties), and is already falling foul of certain quarters of the industry that he jibes at in the in the industry album track, as according to one interview he is already ex mates with dragonette and possibly a few more by the time this review hits the wire.

the album is a frothy, lo tech revision of the revived electro pop song.

being honest, the 2 big tracks that have been given the hit single status in recent times, the girls, and acceptable in the 80s, didn’t really do too much for me, but sat in the middle of the full length experience, they begin to make a lot more sense. calvin obviously is aware of the genres shortcomings as towards the end of the album he loosens up and experiments a little with his formula (penultimate track love souvenir has a smooth r-n-b soul feel that’s rather nice for example), but for many of these demo tracks, (now album proper), the budgetary scope shows a limited scope of sonic variety, in other words, there are certain keyboard sounds maxxed out across the albums 14 or so tracks which can grate a little.

however, that’s not to say the albums a bad way to spend 50 minutes. no, no. au contraire mon ami.

this album is one of those rare beasts that repeated listening actually becomes more fun, that is, once you accept calvins distinctive cheeky london chap styled vocal style (most noticeable on colours), where he is neither singing nor talking, but somewhere in-between. a style that initially raised my heckles, thankfully, this animosity dissipated more and more with each subsequent spin.

for this is a sharp, frothy pop record, that has a winking eye, and tongue in cheek approach, none more so, than on the title track where a serious voice is trying to advise that i created disco set to a raved up electro backing track.

the fact is, that despite my expectations this album has become a firm happy mood favourite over the last few weeks.

i still don’t believe he created disco though.

that’s a hidden wink too far.

 

more detail : here