This week, Scottish hitmaker Calvin Harris returns with his first album in five years, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2. The LP is a fascinating next phase for the producer born Adam Wiles, whose musical career began almost 20 years ago in the quiet U.K. town of Dumfries. With his pick of collaborators, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 sees Harris perfecting a slick, polished disco-meets-funk sound that’s a long way from his scrappy 2007 debut album, I Created Disco.
Harris’ journey from playful newcomer to bonafide dance-pop phenomenon includes numerous global No. 1 singles, billions of streams, a headline slot at Coachella, five GRAMMY nominations and a win for his blockbuster Rihanna team-up, "We Found Love."
On I Created Disco and its 2009 follow-up Ready for the Weekend, the producer sang most of his songs and toured with a live band. From 2010 and beyond, Harris embraced DJing and foreground more famous voices on his anthem-heavy EDM-era albums: 18 Months (2012) and Motion (2014). Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1, released in the summer of 2017, marked a new phase as pop’s go-to vibe creator.
Through all his success, Harris has kept his cool, hovering just outside both the pop world and the superstar DJ circuit. While Forbes named him the world's highest-paid DJ for six years running, he rarely appears alongside his peers at big-name dance festivals like Tomorrowland and Ultra Music Festival. The festivals he does choose are close to heart, like Creamfields in the UK or his collaborator Pharrell's Something In The Water in Washington, D.C. This summer, he's focused instead on a residency at the flashy Ushuaïa Ibiza, appearing each Friday to sold-out crowds. He's also press shy, largely skirting interviews in favor of chats with his friend Zane Lowe on Apple Music.
Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 doubles down on the producer's reputation as a born collaborator with a special talent for making vocals shine. A sequel to 2017's funk and boogie-flavored Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1, the album is wall-to-wall with guests including Dua Lipa, Young Thug, Halsey, Pharrell, Justin Timberlake, 21 Savage and Snoop Dogg.
While Vol. 2 follows the same easy groove as its predecessor, Harris' career is full of change-ups. No matter what mode he's in, the producer's Midas touch is undeniable. In honor of his latest bid for pop glory, here are 10 essential Calvin Harris songs that capture his sonic evolution.
"Acceptable In The 80's" (2007)
Harris got his start making unpolished productions in his bedroom and uploading them to MySpace with no illusions of international fame. Harris wrote, produced, arranged and performed all the songs on his cheekily-titled debut album I Created Disco, a do-it-all approach he'd carry into the future.
His surprise breakout hit, "Acceptable In The 80's," was born on a vintage Amiga 500 Plus computer running the OctaMED sequencer. Its music video is youthful goofiness personified as Harris dances with taxidermied animals against a neon backdrop.
"I'm Not Alone" (2009)
Now working with a modestly expanded production set-up, Harris happened upon a trance preset on the Roland Juno-G that unlocked "I'm Not Alone." Pairing a huge dance riff with the producer's charmingly reticent vocals, the song became the first Calvin Harris single to go to No. 1 in the U.K.
"People didn't really know what to make of it," Harris told Music Radar in 2012. "When it first went to the radio stations, they all said, 'What the hell is he playing at? He's made a trance record!'" BBC Radio 1 host Pete Tong, however, chose "I'm Not Alone" as his "Essential New Tune."
"What I'm into at the moment is the idea of stadium dance," Harris said that year. "Playing football stadiums with massive riffs, big hands-in-the-air moments."
"You Used to Hold Me" (2010)
Released in 2010 as the final single from 2009's Ready For The Weekend, "You Used to Hold Me" marked the end of one era for Harris and the beginning of another for dance music. The song arrived just as EDM was taking hold in the U.S. mainstream, including a media storm around the significant medical emergencies at Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles.
In November, Harris announced that he was giving up singing and playing live to focus on DJing and producing. "I'll do tracks with people who can sing well — proper artists, proper performers," he told Australia's Herald Sun. In a 2015 interview with Zane Lowe, Harris recalled his thinking at the time: "At the end of 2010, I decided to focus whatever ideas I had into basically one tempo, and try to work out the ideal structure for a radio dance record."
"We Found Love" - Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris (2011)
In 2011, Calvin Harris scored his biggest hit as a featured artist. "We Found Love," released as a single ahead of Rihanna's Talk That Talk album, spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100.
The track later won the GRAMMY Award for Best Music Video. Directed by Melina Matsoukas, the video features Rihanna and Dudley O'Shaughnessy as strung-out lovers on the run — with a cameo from Harris DJing in a muddy field.
The collaboration clicked into place when Harris supported Rihanna on a tour of Australia in 2011. "It was a risk for her, I think, 'cause it was a pretty full-on record," the producer told Fuse in 2013. "It was different sounding at that time. And also putting my name on the record as well kinda confused a lot of people."
That "full-on record" now endures as a beloved classic with over one billion YouTube views.
"I Need Your Love" - feat. Ellie Goulding (2013)
On his third album, 18 Months, Harris leaned into his promise to work with "proper performers," including Florence Welch on the GRAMMY-nominated "Sweet Nothing." The album also cemented a very good thing between Harris and English singer Ellie Goulding on "I Need Your Love," released as a single in 2013.
The song's combination of syrup and mainstage heft was right at home in a big moment for acts like Swedish House Mafia, Avicii and Zedd. Harris knew the power in Goulding's raspy vocals, which excelled again on Motion cut "Outside." In the words of one YouTube commenter: "Her voice is actually the sound of an era."
"Under Control" - feat. Alesso & Hurts (2013)
The lead single from Harris's fourth album, Motion, saw the producer team up with Alesso and Hurts vocalist Theo Hutchcraft. Its release coincided with peak EDM hysteria in the US, perfectly capturing the serotonin rush of 2013 with a melody and breakdown built for the biggest possible stages. True to the moment, Harris rounded out the year by signing an exclusive residency with Hakkasan Nightclub in Las Vegas.
"Summer" (2014)
"Summer" stands out on the loaded Motion tracklist as notably guest-free. Despite its lack of additional star power, it was one of Harris's biggest hits, featuring his return to vocals after quitting singing in 2010.
In contrast to the scrappy vocals on albums past, Harris sings with the easy charm of a hitmaker with nothing to prove. The song peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Top 100, while the music video — capturing Harris in heartthrob mode — has clocked 1.5 billion YouTube views. Much later, Harris revealed that in 2014 he had a near-death experience from the heart rhythm disorder arrhythmia, casting a bittersweet shadow on a triumphant year.
"How Deep Is Your Love" - feat. Disciples (2015)
In 2015, Harris hit a new level of fame unfamiliar to the DJ world, dating Taylor Swift and modeling underwear for Emporio Armani.
Amidst all that attention, and after the giddy crossover ambitions of 18 Months and Motion, he teamed up with UK trio Disciples for an understated swerve into deep house. As always, he picked his moment, tapping into a hunger for deeper styles after the excesses of EDM. At the time, Harris told Zane Lowe he was eager to skip the album format and "just release one song at a time." While that didn't exactly stay the plan long-term, "How Deep is Your Love" makes perfect sense on its own.
"Slide" - feat. Frank Ocean & Migos (2017)
After he and Rihanna pleased the pop charts with 2016's "This Is What You Came For," Harris was ready to get back in the album game. As the lead single from Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1, "Slide" introduced a sound that was more California road-trip than peak-time at a dance festival.
The song stood out for its warm, disco-tinged instrumentation and the rare appearance of Frank Ocean outside his own albums, sounding light and sun-drunk. After "Slide" came out, Harris shared a video showing how he made it, casually showing off a studio a long way from an Amiga 500 in Dumfries.
"Stay With Me" - feat. Justin Timberlake, Halsey & Pharrell (2022)
In the years after Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1, Harris jumped between his interests, releasing the purely pop "One Kiss" with Dua Lipa in 2018 and creating the Love Regenerator alias in 2020 to honor his rave roots. (Those decidedly non-commercial releases, including "Hypnagogic (I Can't Wait)" and "Live Without Your Love" with Steve Lacy, provided much needed escape during the pandemic.)
"Stay With Me," featuring Justin Timberlake, Halsey and Pharrell, is equal parts '70s funk and '90s pop, conjuring a carefree vibe that's sure to permeate Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2. On Instagram, Harris shared a photo of himself standing alongside Timberlake, Halsey and Pharrell at the music video shoot, with the caption: "Ever felt like an imposter on your own video set? I have." And yet the hits don't lie.
Songbook: Celebrating Daddy Yankee's Legendary Three-Decade Reggaeton Reign