Album Review: Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 2 by Calvin Harris

Of course, there's always a risk of stepping into the unknown, however, it's this record that saw Harris reach new levels of creativity and target more fans than ever before, leaving the door very much open to the next volume of the Funk Wav Bounces collection. Just like your favourite box set, there's subtle changes and new storylines in each series, and it's as though Funk Wav Bounces Vol.1 uses this method to continue the train to beachy paradise. Whilst there's fresh faces that appear throughout the album (Charlie Puth, Jorja Smith and Halsey), the OG characters (Pharrell, Snoop Dogg and Young Thug) reappear throughout to regain a sense of familiarity.

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The biggest victim of fan-capture since Misery's Paul Sheldon follows up Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1 with star names from Stefflon Don and Snoop Dogg to Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Calvin Harris is many things these days - singer, multi-instrumentalist, EDM DJ, fiancé, farmer - but it appears the towering Scot is also the biggest victim of fan-capture since Misery's Paul Sheldon. Five years after the release of Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1, the famously flighty producer has released a sequel which, despite the title's implication, was never intended to be recorded. The bass is grooving, the chords are crunchy, the guests are suitably high-profile, but the artistic verve and memorable songwriting are considerably more patchy in their appearances.

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It's summertime, it's warm out, and you need something to listen to by the beach. Enter Calvin Harris with 'Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2', his second collection of nostalgic, easygoing pop with a bunch of your favourite names in the credits. Although this record is presented as a fresh take on old sounds, truly, Harris has always been a nostalgic; his 2007 debut was infamously called 'I Created Disco', a jokey electro-house/LCD Soundsystem knock-off record with a cheeky title that didn't sound particularly mature then and hasn't aged particularly well since; that's without critiquing its title, which certainly wouldn't have gone down well in the age of Twitter.

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