Ready for the Weekend

The uneasiness of being famous

Scotland-born Adam Wiles, better known as Calvin Harris in the musical circles, became popular not in a moment and his glory was a big surprise for everyone, including Harris himself. He started his musical career in 1999 and moved to London from his native town of Dumfries in order to reach success in the chosen profession. However, the artist had to come back to his Motherland due to absence of work for him. Nevertheless, the labor of the artist was appreciated by the representatives of such labels as EMI and Sony BMG and the artist signed a contract with them without hesitation. In 2007, he released the dance debut I Created Disco, which proved to be a breakthrough success. The album’s singles became hits, while the unusual cover for his song The Girls, performed by Dragonette, entered the spring-summer 2008 runway by Carl Lagerfeld. Soon after the release of I Created Disco, Harris got down to his second disc, working as a producer at the same time. Calvin has already worked with such stars as Kylie Minogue and British rapper Dizzee Rascal, while he refused from collaboration with Lady GaGa, although he later referred her as a “good artist”. However, Harris was mostly haunted by the thoughts of his sophomore attempt – he even claimed that in the Heathrow airport his laptop with the only copy of the album was lost due to the luggage office mistake. Later he apologized and said it was done in an attempt to win some more time for creation of the disc. Anyway, the disc Ready For The Weekend was released this month and managed to make much buzz around.

Ready For The Weekend: the music for the stadiums

If the previous album was recorded by Harris for the night clubs and home parties, the current set of songs Ready For The Weekend was composed, having in mind the dance music for making crazy the whole stadiums of listeners. This aim got its impersonation in the track Ready For The Weekend, which also gave the title to the disc. It is a bight electro-pop song about parties all night long, having fun and clubs. It has a memorable chorus, performed by the colorful vocals of soul singer Mary Pearce. Other collaborations on this long-play include the celebratory R&B hymn Dance Wiv Me, which features Dizzee Rascal, and melancholic composition Worst Day (Feat. Izza Kizza). The topic of a broken heart is also raised by Harris in a tune Blue, which has sour poetry strangely combined with the disco rhythm. Fiery dance tracks Stars Come Out and You Used To Hold Me became not only the new donation by Harris into the fund of the world electronica, but also have a charge of fun and naivety to amuse anyone. The only thing that worried about these tracks is their lack of individuality, so openly pop they are. Anyway, there are plenty of people, who adore such tracks. The winding electro-funk single Yeah Yeah Yeah La La Lam must be already familiar to you by the new advertisement of Coca-Cola – it is a creation by Calvin too and is one of the main disc decorations. The album finishes with an unexpected instrumental 5iliconeator, which is peculiar with its piano driven ambient tune.

A farewell to irony

If the first full-length by Harris had an ironic name I Created Disco, the second one embodied all the endless energy and strive for good fun. Actually, the entire disc works for one goal – to make the listeners dance away all the troubles. It is hard to state of Calvin Harris reached his target, as the disc Ready For The Weekend has both glorious and great moments and evidently week ones. May be the artist was worried about the quality of his second attempt and tried to postpone its release due to objective reasons. At the same time we should remember that the pop music industry is a capricious lady and forgets the yesterday’s idols easily if they do not manage to fasten the former success with something fresh and hot. May be, Harris gave up his jokes because he seriously decided to create an impressive pop record, oriented for an auditory as wide as possible. We can witness it is the powerful vocals by soul performer Mary Pearce and in the spots of such elements like R&B, ambient and instrumental music. Harris demonstrated with his disc Ready For The Weekend that his talent is much more multi-dimensional than anyone could expect, but it is a fragile thing too. His producing work also gave much good for the mind. After such a multi-layered and unexpected disc as Ready For The Weekend, you can hardly predict what to expect from Calvin Harris next time – on his third disc.