You might be thinking that this album is quite recent (released mid 2009) and more modern than classic electronic music, but what it created more than truly grants it a place in this series. It was the breakout album for the now biggest producer and DJ in EDM, and was the album that put his name out there. It wasn’t massively successful as a whole apart from the UK charts, but it was the singles that did most of the legwork. Even though most of the songs on the album were light electro-pop with vocals by Harris himself, the singles were surprise packages.
I’m Not Alone was the first single and knocked Lady Gaga’s Poker Face off number 1 almost as soon as it released. Poker Face. It starts off like a lot of his earlier music but drops very hard, which was most likely very well appreciated. It hit top 10 in a few other European countries and Australia too, but faded until he released Ready for the Weekend, an electro-pop song that embodied his old style very well. It didn’t do as well commercially as I’m Not Alone, but still kept his name in the mix with the album being released the next week.
Flashback is similar to I’m Not Alone in that it has Electro House elements, and so also did well on the charts without reaching number 1. You Used To Hold Me didn’t do as well (apart from the UK), but what set it apart from the other singles was that it’s an absolute banger. It’s deeper and darker than the rest, and showed the potential that he had for harder songs than what he usually made at the time.
It’s also important to remember Dance Wiv Me, his collaboration with Dizzee Rascal that had been released the year before. It wasn’t released as a part of the album (even though it was included), and it showed the variety in his production skills and was another song that did pretty well but didn’t seem to blow anyone away.
In retrospect, Ready For The Weekend can be seen as the album that prepared the world for the EDM superstar that is Calvin Harris, a bombshell that would only really hit with his next album “18 Months”. In saying that though, it’s still a very good album with fantastic singles, all of which were popular when they were released. It was also the last time that we heard Calvin Harris’ older electro-pop style before he moved to the bigger and better heights of commercial pop and EDM stardom. Have a listen to probably the most recent classic in this series, but one that has left a legacy larger than many others, and was a monumental step in the journey of one of the world’s biggest DJs.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F4YpHTKE8E?list=PL1NBqoM3WrM-365JCtHspu9LP-8yzJUmR&w=560&h=315]