Ellie Goulding features on yet another classic from the dance music tastemaker.
Fans rejoiced Sunday as Calvin Harris posted a fourth teaser for his upcoming collab with two-time collaborator, Ellie Goulding. Titled ‘Miracle‘, we are seeing a lot more of the unreleased track this week.
Enchanted by a phone-lit crowd at his headlining set in Lima, Peru, concertgoers were presented with a new direction from Harris. Surprisingly, that direction is likely older than most of the fans were that night. Sharp pianos and an upbeat bassline pair a vocal melody best listened to in JNCO jeans. The song speaks from an era when you had to call an infoline to rave, and while I wasn’t there for that, I love it.
Please notice this is part four of an ongoing news piece. Click here to read the previous entry.
Is Calvin Harris setting a throwback era?
Goulding and Harris recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of their first billboard-topping collaboration. In 2013, ‘I Need Your Love’ peaked at #16, followed by ‘Outside’ at #29 the following year. Several weeks on the global chart cemented them as Pop Dance classics. These two songs alone didn’t have to pretend to define Mainstage EDM in the early to mid-2010s. As a result, they built an undeniable bridge between Electro House and radio hits, bringing millions of new fans to the festival circuit.
Yet, ‘Miracle’ sings a different tune – or does it? Evoking a bygone era, the song is surely ready to sit among the 90’s Trance classics that came long before Harris’ tenure.
So, are the 90s back? Throwbacks do seem to be the trend. Many emerging artists like Prospa and TSHA are setting the tone of the 2020s with a style easily paired with 30-year-old songs. Among them, Calvin Harris is already releasing music much like theirs.
His lesser-known alias, Love Regenerator, is clearly dedicated to Classic House and Trance styles.
In turn, Harris’ recent releases under his name have been as far from those genres as water to oil. ‘Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2’, released in 2022, is a pop-funk album through and through. While Love Regenerator does feel like a time machine, its style is too lo-fi for what he is showing in this teaser.
Despite Harris’ eclectic discography, Miracle‘s pumping basslines and turn-of-the-millennium vocals show a new side of his Trance influence. It still remains unclear if this is a new direction or a brief nod to his early inspiration.
Where will we listen to ‘Miracle’?
Ellie Goulding’s upcoming album, Higher than Heaven, will likely not be the home for her new track with Calvin Harris. At this time, there is no mention of ‘Miracle’ in the pre-released tracklist, and having been delayed in January, it is likely the album was finished far before the pair hit the studio.
Listening to the first single on her album, it makes much more sense to release ‘Miracle’ under Calvin Harris’ name, or even under Love Regenerator. ‘Like a Saviour‘, while spelled like a true brit, doesn’t offer the same Euro Trance nostalgia. Goulding said on the Joe Wicks podcast,
“[Higher than Heaven] is like a dance record. It’s electronic pop, a dance thing from outer space“.
Yet, the album’s single and teaser feel more like a spin on Goulding’s previous pop hits than the, I’ll say it again, Trance Anthem, that ‘Miracle’ clearly will be.
Between the teaser’s tone and Harris’ exclusive promotion of the track, it’s likely we can expect Ellie Goulding as just a feature on this one.
I don’t know if the rave-ready vocals of ‘Miracle’ are begging for an abandoned warehouse or a 30,000-person crowd. Personally, I’m hoping to see it in both. Wherever it deserves to be played, it brings me more nostalgia than I wish to experience alone.