The Guardian rounds up the best comments, questions and answers from our recent live chat on tomorrow's journalist – what tools and skills will they need to survive and thrive?
ARTIST: Calvin Harris.
ALBUM: Ready For The Weekend.
RELEASED: 14 August 2009.
LABEL: Sony.
GENRE: "Synthpop"/"Electropop"/Dance.
RATING: *****
Calvin Harris' return to the singles and album charts after a sporadic 2008 which saw him contributing largely to Kylie Minogue's X album as producer and penning the #1 single Dance Wiv Me for rapper Dizzee Rascal, has been greeted as a welcome triumph with latest album, Ready For The Weekend.
The Scottish electronic musician and singer-songwriter has maintained the curiously cyber "Electro-funk" aesthetic of his previous 2007 album I Created Disco - a recent genre cited by music critics - but added a more defined and polished dance sound on Ready For The Weekend which has already seen its title track released in July reach #3 in the UK Singles Chart and fellow hit I'm Not Alone notch #1 in the charts in April.
With his influences ranging from Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Fatboy Slim and Kylie, the former bedroom boy hit-maker who saw his first hits Acceptable In The 80s and The Girls reach #1 and #3 in 2007 respectively, has continued his fuzzy, bass-driven synthetic machine-laden sound but added a refined "trance"/"house" grandiose with anthemic grand piano and synth-strings on upcoming single Flashback and I'm Not Alone respectively.
For an artist verging on feel-good pop songs and uptempo dance anthems, Harris has found his niche to cater for summery electronic pop with an emphatic bass and spacey edge and a simplistic necessity to please on his dance tracks with subtle piano melodies complemented with indie-esque acoustic intro instrumentals ensuring his eclectic nature embraces all, particularly on the tracks Blue and Worst Day.
The album generally is a precisely arranged and frenetic affair with his staple synth and drum machine wizardry - which saw Harris develop the first human synthesizer called the Humanthesizer in August - sounding best on the uptempo and danceable The Rain, Stars Come Out and the repetitively catchy You Used To Hold Me, while forthcoming single Flashback - set for release in November - has a delicious piano riff of the M People and K-Klass quality ensured to hook its listeners thereafter.
Criticisms of the album include Calvin's filler tracks like Relax, Burns Night and the final track Siliconeator - with the latter a poignant piano effort which with greater development could have offered a nice typical Moby, Pet Shop Boys (PSB) -esque ballad common on their electronic dance albums - which could all have been re-worked to suit either an indie contingent or a pure dancey-rave devouring listener more appropriately than containing a mish-mash of both.
Also, if you're looking for perfect singing ability, Harris' drone does tend to fit in to the PSB Neil Tennant category and is not always easy on the ear. But luckily, Harris' appeal like Tennant's has never been solely concentrated on his vocal delivery, while never sounding awful, but difficult to love instantly.
However the album, which also includes Harris' collaboration with Dizzee on Dance Wiv Me last year, is a much better effort than I Created Disco and is generally a greater crowd pleaser than his previous effort which was sporadic in its really greatly written and produced songs, similar to Mark Ronson's promising but ultimately muddled and disappointing Version.
If you like Sam Sparro's amalgamation of polished "electropop" songs and his dancier aesthetic - showcased on Sparro's 2008 debut album Sam Sparro which contained the #2 hit single, Black & Gold - then you are bound to enjoy Harris' knitting of both on Ready For The Weekend.
READY FOR THE WEEKEND: DOWNLOAD TRACKS: The Rain, Ready For The Weekend, Stars Come Out, You Used To Hold Me, I'm Not Alone, Flashback, Dance Wiv Me.
