In order to promote an album, you need to get attention and Calvin Harris knows how to do just that.
The Scottish DJ posted a series of thirst traps to his Instagram last week to promote his new album, "Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2." In one shot, Harris poses shirtless in a pair of black shorts with "Buy my album" written across the top.
Big names such as Justin Timberlake, Normani, and Charlie Puth appear on the album. The album was released on August 5 and is a sequel to "Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1," released in 2017. The latter debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Harris' second volume has received mixed reviews from critics. NME said Harris "meshes a wistful grab-bag of influences – nu-disco, funk, boogie, soul – with his skill for creating a mega-watt pop-hit, taking listeners on a journey on a psychedelic trip you won’t want to end."
The Guardian, however, was less than enthusiastic in their review, calling the album "dull."
"The issue is that none of the songs that all this gorgeous production whirls around are actually any good," writes Alim Kheraj.
"Funk Wav Bounces Vol 2 may often sound luxurious but there’s barely any substance," he continued. "Unlike the spoils of his farming, Harris has crafted something that’s lacking in flavour."
In a recent interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Harris spoke about the inspiration behind the album.
"This album is for car journeys, and beaches and things like this," he said. "What I was doing a lot was taking trips to the mountains. This is when I still lived in LA. Taking a trip out to this place called Idyllwild in the car, listening to a lot of psychedelic rock and then climbing the mountain, literally and figuratively, and then heading back. So I was doing a lot of that, putting on a lot of vinyl, getting to that kind of zone."
Harris also described the experience of collaborating with the various artists on the album.
"Honestly for me, just from the viewpoint of music that I listened to growing up, getting Pharrell and Pusha T on a song was big," he said.
"Getting Pharrell and Justin Timberlake, and Halsey on a song felt amazing to me and like such an amazing experience. It was those two that stood out in that respect."
Harris also spoke about his experience working with Charlie Puth on the track, "Obsessed."
"We start off with the yacht rock beat and then Charlie was basically channeling Michael McDonald," Harris said. "I wanted to take a lot of the auto-tune off his voice. I didn’t want him to sound necessarily like how he does in his records."
"When you’re Charlie Puth, you can do anything," Harris added. "So, I think there’s a shepherding that needs to happen sometimes with people that are just so talented. You need to kind of go, ‘well, what about this?’ or ‘try this. It’s OK to sing like this’ or ‘It’s OK to do it like this’. "And, I think once I kind of gave him permission to do that, he went with it and he was amazing at it."
Harris' album might be getting mixed reviews, but his promotional tactics are receiving a large amount of praise!