Five years ago, DJ and producer Calvin Harris released Funk Wave Bounce Vol. 1, An All-Star Weekend for Pop-EDM: Frank Ocean teamed up with the Migos on “Slide”, Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams being flanked by Big Sean on Hiccup “Feels”. It was part flex of Harris’s collaborator-fight muscle, part record party, part incorporating his love for Harris of an era where disco and funk came, and it spawned enough hit singles that a next. The link was inevitable.
second entry in funk wav bounce The series features a mostly new cast of characters—Migos Offset returns, as do Williams and Snoop Dogg—while maintaining its inner spirit of an A-list gathering where guests are invited to do their bit and Head to the exit. It’s certainly, almost refreshing, clear for the most part, with most of its lyrics composed by plush, gently bobbing grooves with bottle-serve summertime lounging.
Pop and hip-hop bear boldface names easily, the paparazzi equivalent of photo ops’ records: British MC Stefflon Don and hyperactive New Jersey rapper Koi Lere of R&B dynamo Chloe as well as ebb-and-flow groove Along with laughing at your sexual prowess. “Woman of the Year”; Hip-hop hero Snoop Dogg welcomes Atlanta upstart Lato to the A-list on “Live My Best Life”; Dancefloor queen Dua Lipa and shape-shifting MC Young Thug delve into the art of seduction on “Potion.” Justin Timberlake tries to recapture the buzz of “the next Michael Jackson” he did early in his career on the raucous two-parter “Stay With Me”, though he is nearly overshadowed by Williams, who Bridges delivers an effortless tone, and Halsey, a breath-taking Valley Girl, marvels at her spoken-song bits.
the moment when Funk Wow Bounce, Vol. 2 Its breaks from the cold provide shots of adrenaline. On “Ready or Not”, Busta Rhymes offers a slightly relaxed version of his tongue-twisting rhyme over jagged synths and loud house piano; On “Lean On Me,” which is punctuated by a twisty melodic guitar solo, Rae Sremmurd’s Sway Lee is in full-on well mode, blank between showing off her wealth and expressing her longing for a real connection.
Harris isn’t reinventing the dance-pop wheel Funk Wow Bounce, Vol. 2The title itself indicates this. But it’s a good wind-down album that can be put on shuffle at the end of a long-summer-night bacchanal, when the revelers get to the point where they’re too tired to do anything but Enjoy the glow of the blowout they just threw.
