After Will.I.Am’s return, last December, brought us the likes of ‘The Hardest Ever’, I had certainly thought that his quest to revolutionise music had gone too far… hilariously far.
However, ‘This is Love’ is a delightful step back into the club-pop mix that lies somewhere between ‘Boom Boom Pow’ and ‘I Gotta Feeling’: less offensive than the former and less cheesy than the latter.
“Imma go hard like a MFing boner…”?!
Its soft piano intro is a fantastic contrast to the powerful, radio-friendly vocals of Eva Simmons and club-friendly chorus, contributed by Swedish House Mafia’s Steve Angello.
The unsurprising drawback, from any artistic praise, is the lyrics. Will’s rap is lacking direction in times – “dope crusader, funky terminator” – and Eva finds her way through a dozen different wordings of ‘this is love’ in a failed attempt to avoid repetition.
Love: Eva’s voice (check her out!) and the general anthemic feel – “HELL YEAH!”
Do NOT love: 56 appearances of the word ‘love’. We get it!!
‘This is Love’ will be released in the UK on 24th June.
So come on down, Willeh, you’ve earned yourself an impressive: 8/10
