Award-winning DJ heavy-hitter David Guetta has released his latest album Nothing But The Beat. Is it another step forward in Electronic Music, or is it all pills and alcohol? Dave Roberts investigates.

OK. I’ve always been a fan of dance music. Ever since I first saw Daft Punk’s “One More Time” on video hits one morning, I had been perplexed to this electronic sound that was so polar to my usual listening habits of rock, rock and more rock.

So it came as no surprise to me, that years later I’d become a electro-house DJ, and start listening to a LOT of dance music from Prydz, to Potbelleez, from Daft Punk to David Guetta. Clubber’s Guide, sessions, progressive – you name it I have it. So I suppose there’s a lot of comparison material for this album – which I actually enjoyed.

I know, shock, horror. The guy who not too long ago shredded Stereosonic is listening to and reviewing a dance album. But that aside, let’s get to the nitty-gritty.

All the tracks start almost right away – obviously with the notion of remixing and mixing into club beats in mind. Heavily melodic, and some songs with expansive build-ups (like Without U, featuring Usher), that have always separated good DJs from the bad. Which frankly sounds like U2 meets Daft Punk – which is an amazing mix.

In fact, the entire album has a lot of colour in dark and light throughout it – and yes it’s essentially a dance album – but it’s written like a rock album. And just on the note of comparison material, with so much to set benchmarks, it’s nice to see an artist like Guetta punch some creativity and dare I say it, real musicianship, into their albums and tunes.

Some stand out tracks are… well frankly most of the tracks on the album have their own flavour. And the reason for this? David has a unique ability to combine his own musical style with the ‘canon’ style of the artists that he is working with. As a result you get an album that is extremely varied – due to playing on the various names he’s worked with for that song.

So from track one you hear house, electro, early naughties trance, pop-dance, autotuned and natural voice. In fact there is so much in this album that it would take me forever to list everything and analyse it in the way I’d do an EP.

Cheekily though, he has a song called ‘The Alphabet’ – now so far as I can tell this seems to be an homage to dance music throughout the ages – starting with a classical ballroom piano piece before flinging into a Daft Punk styled breakdown and beat that makes you want to groove instantly.

Guetta is no stranger to the build-up breakdown cycle of dance music, howver his work really shines when he’s working with other people as well – which is where the second half of the album (which by the way is the international double album version) comes into it’s own.

David pairs up with other dance legends Avicii and Afrojack to bring in another flavour to the album – and by god it works. Afrojack’s input on Lunar is stellar in itself (no pun intended), with a thick beat, and a huge breakdown and lend section, and epic dance floor-filling beats.

Avicii’s track stands more in the early naughties trance era again, but Guetta’s influence is clearly heard in the beat and nuances of the track, making it a very enjoyable listen and a club beat I’d probably dance to.

Which is a big call – especially if you’ve ever seen me dance.

Little bad girl is instrumental this time, and all the other tracks on the album are full of enough musicianship to make some of the most hardcore classical fans weep.

But. Yes there’s that word I try to work into every review if I can – and this time there is a big one.

If you’d not noticed i’ve used a lot of comparison to Daft Punk in this review... Potentially because it really does sound a lot like something the robotic giants would pull off. In fact, this sounds like what I’d expected a new Daft album to sound like – especially tracks such as ‘Without U’ and ‘Metro Music’, where the influence is more of a borrowing of styles.

The first time I’d listened to Without U – I figured it must have been my mind playing tricks on me but no – it’s VERY Daft Punk. In fact, you can almost hear exact instruments. Ive never done such an accurate description of a song before – but honestly if you somehow mashed up ‘With or Without You’ by U2 and ‘Digital Love’ by Daft Punk you’d get ‘Without U’ – just without the same lyrics.

Beyond that however, the album is fantastic and it definitely will stay on my iPod for a while. I enjoyed listening to the album, it’s just that little irk that stops me from scoring it higher. Otherwise, it’s an album that is a must have for any party-goer, any dance fan, any runner jogger and exerciser. It’s fun, well written and produced, and the cameo’s from different artists work to Guetta’s favour.

Guetta has certainly held onto his heavyweight DJ title, making an album for all ages and listeners – professional or not.

Summary: A fantastic dance album from one of the big artists in the dance scene, combining many styles to make an album for all to enjoy.

Review Score: 7/10