David Guetta Punches The “Clocks”

noah | August 25, 2009 10:00 am

Our look at the closing lines of the week’s biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to One Love, the fourth album by French DJ (and producer of the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”) David Guetta: • “Guetta is at his best (and his most commercial) when he’s equipped with a melody as chewy as his beats. ‘When Loves Takes Over,’ with Rowland, works beautifully as a cheesy synth-pop makeover of Coldplay’s ‘Clocks.’ Unfortunately, he whiffs on a perfect opportunity for a tuneful techno-soul bomb in ‘Choose,’ his strangely flat Ne-Yo collaboration. For the most part, though, Guetta knows what he’s doing here. Bring America to the club? Nah. He’ll bring the club to America.” [Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times] • “With a vocal roster that is a who’s who of R&B royalty—including Kelly Rowland in full-on diva mode on the No 1 single ‘When Love Takes Over’—Guetta’s pumping, chart-friendly house music is, like the man himself, shamelessly populist.” [Joe Clay, Times Of London] • “Akon and guilty pleasure lyrics (‘She’s nothing like a girl you’ve ever seen before/Nothing you can compare to your neighborhood whore’) make for a perfect match on ‘Sexy Bitch,’ then a handful of B or B-plus material fills the middle before the BEP cut and Estelle’s uplifting title track take it to another level. Even if everything seems built for the 12″ format and then landed on an album anyway, Guetta’s fans get all the well-done house music they desire, and then some.” [David Jeffries, All Music Guide]