David Guetta - One Love

David Guetta’s newest release stands apart from fellow production-oriented records directed towards the mainstream market in the past two years. While Timbaland’s Shock Value 2 sounds dated in 2010—a mere shadow of the 2007 original and then-exciting Shock Value—and artists like the Black Eyed Peas continue to struggle lyrically even as they develop a more-intensely electronic sound in The E.N.D (The Energy Never Dies), David Guetta’s One Love makes no effort to disguise its focal point: electronic house music designed to be heard the world over. The Black Eyed Peas comparison is a particularly fair one, as their track “I Gotta Feeling” is sampled on Guetta’s One Love. What starts as a familiar Bud-Light-commercial-evoking guitar ostinato quickly gives way to Guetta’s signature pulsing, flashing beats so characteristic of house music today. Not surprisingly Guetta features other superstars like Kelly Rowland, Akon, and newcomers Estelle and Kid Cudi on the tracks “When Love Takes Over”, “Sexy Bitch”, “One Love”, and “Memories” respectively, each of these titles obviously demonstrating the varied lyrical content throughout One Love—a variety that stands comfortably united under Guetta’s driving synth beats. Though this means that many of the tracks are about the same tempo (often a thrilling 140bpm) Guetta goes to great lengths to provide as much variety in the production as possible, without having the album sound disjointed. One standout track—if only for its sonic departure from the rest of the album—is the Ne-yo and Kelly Rowland-backed “Choose”. “Choose” opens with an industrial pop drum loop that evolves into a melodic synth loop with syncopated accents, and in this respect more closely resembles early computer music than any other track on the album. This is not to say that electronic music fans averse to house beats won’t find something they like on this album; many of the tracks are meticulously layered with subtle industrial pop and elements of elektronische musik. David Guetta’s skill lies in his ability to blend dance pop and house elements together, his production often mimicking the timbre of the vocalists featured on his tracks—compare the production of “Sexy Chick” (feat. Akon) to that of “I Wanna Go Crazy” (feat. Will.I.Am) to get a sense of this. Those looking for lyrical depth will have to look elsewhere, as One Love’s lyrics are in complete service to Guetta’s beats. However, this could very well have been an effort to produce so-called “world music”. Taking a lesson from the Black Eyed Peas, Guetta’s lyrics are simple enough to be understood by the widest of English-speaking audiences—that is, all across the world. Ultimately, Guetta (and very likely his label) have crafted a release that is unabashedly commercial: One Love’s lyrics are simple, superficial, and forgettable; familiar names in mainstream Western pop music abound, with a different artist featured on every track; and many of Guetta’s own beats sound similar (at least in tempo) or otherwise reminiscent of past House music. However, never before has the genre seen such a successful marriage with commercial pop, and Guetta’s envigorating dance music could be just what House artists and fans the world over have been waiting for.

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