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David Guetta ft. Kelly Rowland - 'When Love Takes Over'

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Fraser McAlpine | 12:26 UK time, Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Kelly RowlandWhen it comes to making new songs, working to a formula can be a dangerous thing. On the one hand, you've got all the benefits of decades of musical wisdom, each lesson hard-won in front of a discerning audience, so you KNOW what's going to work and what won't. On the other, if your song sounds exactly like nine other new songs which are all vying for attention at the same time, you're going to struggle to get anywhere.

The trick is to only use the very best ideas, and to coat them in so much fairy-dust that they shine as if freshly minted at the very moment you first hear them. This will make people think you're a production genius.

(. WHAT is floating in the sea at 1:56?)

In the case of this song, the genius ingredients include a thinly-reworked go at the piano riff to 'Clocks' by Coldplay, handclaps - and regular ChartBloggerers should know how we feel about THOSE, right? - and best of all, a proper 'Ray Of Light' style hands-in-the-air pop song, courtesy of Ms Rowland's golden throat.

And the fairy dust is...well...it's your standard dance-pop production, actually. A nice bed of synthistrings, a skippy beat, a breakdown, some riffing glassy electronics and a dramatic, cinematic bottom end drone. All done very tastefully to make sure the good bits are not spoiled.

Meanwhile, Kelly sounds entirely unlike herself, so that even SHE is all buffed up and shiny. She's got a spiralling, sky-scraping melody to sing too, which helps a lot, and did I mention those handclaps? OK, they're a bit weedy and sampled, but always good to have around.

All it needs is something which breaks the formula into tiny fragments out of sheer insanity, and who knows, this could even be perfect.

Four starsDownload: Out now
CD Released: June 15th

´óÏó´«Ã½ Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

"Kelly really shines on this record. I love her vocals, very strong and powerful."
"'When Love Takes Over' is never not amazing."
"My only criticism would be not enough screen time for that ridiculously fierce dress on K. Rowland."

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