Two artists who know each other very well released a single this weekend, coincidentally. On the one hand, Calvin Harris publishes ‘Release the Pressure’, his unexpected collaboration with the indie-rock band Kasabian. On the other, Ellie Goulding lends her voice to ILLENIUM’s ‘Don’t Want Your Love’. Both productions are clearly intended for the dance floor, but one works and the other doesn’t.
Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding have formed a very lucrative musical couple: their collaborations ‘I Need Your Love’, ‘Miracle’ and, above all, ‘Outside’ have been huge hits. The most recent, ‘Free’, released in 2024, did not match its impact.
In these two novelties, Calvin and Ellie are perceived in different degrees of inspiration. Harris totally gets it right collaborating with Kasabian on ‘Release the Pressure’. The union is unexpected and can be perceived as fresh and new, since the voice of Tom Meighan – singer of Kasabian – sounds comfortable within this context of house with nuances of drum n’ bass. ‘Release the Pressure’ is an efficient club hit, but melodic enough to seduce pop fans.
‘Release the Pressure’ is the typical house bop that the British eat with potatoes. And it considerably improves the country proposal of ‘Smoke the Pain Away’.
Goulding, however, doesn’t deliver her most interesting dance collaboration on ‘Don’t Want Your Love’, even though the track is co-written by Charli XCX. While ‘Miracle’ was tremendously influential for its recovery of the trance of the nineties, and ‘Hypnotized’ managed to go viral on TikTok thanks to its elegance and visual proposal, ‘Don’t Want Your Love’ uses the easy high and the most typical “epic” chords imaginable. The best part of ‘Don’t Want Your Love’ is that at least Goulding brings out her big voice, like the dance diva she is.
Charging …
