It was the iPod “Nano-cromatic” TV ad that got me thinking again about Calvin Harris’ I Created Disco.
In the flurry of discs that come to the Music Spectrum office on a regular basis, there are plenty of albums I’d like to review if I had more time. Harris’ disc was one of those, shelved in my collection because it’s a good disc, but a disc I never reviewed.
The iPod commercial brought it back off the shelf as I saw those differently colored iPods spinning and landing in line, each one featuring the picture of an album cover of a similar shade. There was Calvin Harris’ mockingly 80’s-like yellow album cover, and ever since I saw the commercial (which has been awhile now), I’ve been meaning to write these words:
The boast of the album title, I Created Disco, is only outdone but the lyric on the song, “Girls,” where Calvin Harris says, “I get all the girls/I must warn ya’/I can’t help but play around.”
The mocking/fronting continues through Harris’ I Created Disco in funk, soul, disco, 80’s rap, hip-hop style. In a funk falsetto with 70’s era soul rap on “Merrymaking at My Place,” Harris makes it clear that wherever he is, there’s the party. I don’t know what they’ve been taking, but it makes me want to show up at his front door to party—at least, for the music.
As if a prophecy of the iPod “Nano-cromatic” ads, “Colours” talks about wanting his girlfriends to dress with color—sung over some funky bass loops.
While there are plenty of songs about being in a band/rock ‘n’ roll singer, there aren’t many like “I Am in the Industry” which celebrate working in the music industry—publicists, agents, managers, label execs, and more. The rhythms are also ripe for use on Hospitality Night at the clubs.
On “Acceptable in the 80’s,” Harris sings, “I’ve got love you if you were born in the 80’s.” Although, really the song is born in the 80’s and will be easily recognized by those of us born in the 70’s who cut their musical teeth on 80’s music. The track sounds like Eddy Grant and Men Without Hats, but it also causes this stream of consciousness: Musical Youth “Pass the Dutchie,” Peaches & Herb, Howard Jones, Thompson Twins, and “I Dropped a Bomb on You.”
