Judging by his recent appearance alongside Fatboy Slim in Marlay Park, David Guetta certainly has a lot of Irish fans. They have a treat in store with One Love, the latest offering from the man voted DJ Magazine’s Best House DJ of 2008.
The album opens with recent Irish number one ‘When Love Takes Over’, featuring ex-Destiny’s Child diva Kelly Rowland. Ms. Rowland is angling to become the next Donna Summer on this track and it’s by far the best of her One Love contributions. Another highlight is the will.i.am-assisted ‘I Wanna Go Crazy’, a rave-influenced house tune that’s bound to be a huge club hit. Estelle also makes an appearance on the title-track, her voice gliding over atmospheric piano chords and soulful backing vocals. ‘Toyfriend’ is an album standout, a minimal, bouncy tune featuring the vocals of Wynter Gordon, an American R‘n’B singer-songwriter.
The downfall of commercial house music is usually the abysmal lyrics. Of course, no-one expects to have the next Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan penning couplets for a hard-house producer. But is anything other than banal clichés too much to ask for? On One Love the answer, apparently, is “yes”. ‘If We Ever’ featuring Makeba has some of the most hackneyed lines you’ve ever heard, the kind of thing a 13-year-old aspiring poet might scrawl in her journal. ‘Sexy Chick’, with vocals by Akon, contains the laughable line, “I’m trying to find a way to describe this girl without being disrespectful”. Naturally, the next line mentions the chick’s “booty”.
Clocking in at 15 tracks, it could be argued that there’s more filler than killer here. However, the three or four great tracks will be more than enough to keep Guetta’s legion of fans happy.