Album Review: Calvin Harris – Motion

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The DJ’s fourth effort comes together in a way that makes it sound more like a playlist than an album, says Jack Elliott

Thursday 13 November 2014

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Calvin Harris’ return to the club scene is with ‘Motion’, his fourth studio album. To give it a listen, I gave the album a stream on Spotify, and three tracks in, an advert for the album played. It’s clear that Harris is targeting all of your favourite nighttime haunts with this record; don’t be be surprised if you hear at least a fifth of the album on a single night out. It’s loud, it’s pumping, and you will probably enjoy it and not understand why.

Commercial DJs generally enjoy featuring other artists on their tracks as a way to help the popularity of the track. This is also done because most commercial DJs can’t sing to save their lives. Harris features some seriously big names on this effort, such as Ellie Goulding, Gwen Stefani, John Newman and Haim. In spite of this, the tracks where the album suddenly peaks are the ones in which Harris’ vocals are featured; http://nouse.co.uk/2014/11/13/album-review-calvin-harris-motion Archived 11 Dec 2018 08:52:38 Nouse Web Archives Album Review: Calvin Harris – Motion Page 2 of 3 they do some serious justice to tracks like ‘Summer’.

If you get to track 9 and haven’t realised it yet, Harris’ latest record goes about partially renouncing his easy-listening dance-pop label. Calvin Harris is a DJ – a rave co-ordinator, if you will; this is why there is little coherence throughout the album. I felt like I was supposed to be heavily intoxicated to enjoy the music and I found my attention begin to wane in the face of successive heavy beats. But then something magical happened. ‘Pray to God, one of the album’s last few big-name collaborations, features the band Haim, and it truly is where this album shines like lens-flare. It’s shockingly gentle. It was everything you would have ever expected from a collaboration between Calvin Harris and Haim. It was also followed by a hip-hop rave track.

Previous albums from Calvin Harris have felt a little more cohesive. Take 2009’s ‘Ready For The Weekend’. It was an extremely well put together album that had a coherent theme. But when one considers the theme of ‘Motion’, Calvin Harris seems to be demonstrating a lack of restraint. The name alone suggests this, but it comes together in a way that makes it sound slightly more like a playlist than an album. Overall though, ‘Motion’ succeeds in shining a spotlight on some of Harris’ most successful releases over the last year, but the consolidation of tracks for this release is remarkably shoddy.

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