Calvin Harris Back On Vocals In New Single
Grammy nominee DJ and producer Calvin Harris has released a new single on March 14th. To listeners’ surprise, there was no feature on the song “SMOKE THE PAIN AWAY” which implies that Harris had stepped back in the booth and recorded his own vocals on the track. The DJ’s more recent string of singles has featured appearances from Ellie Goulding, Rag’n’Bone Man, Eliza Rose, Sam Smith, and more. This is his first appearance as the sole vocalist on one of his own singles since 2016.
“SMOKE THE PAIN AWAY” is a song about how Calvin Harris is feeling a loss of some sort, and wants to get rid of the pain. He talks about how drinking hasn’t helped and smoking it away has not helped either. He is feeling a strong sense of pain that just will not subside.
“But I can’t drink the pain away
No, I can’t snort the pain away
Oh, I can’t smoke the pain away”
This dance track gives off seldom vibes strictly off of lyrics, but hides it behind a nice club beat that really gets your body moving. Depending on the ear that’s listening, this song could remind some people of a country EDM type of vibe by the different instruments Calvin Harris decides to use.
The versatile musician found success in his solo singer-songwriter-producer era with ‘Feel so Close” in 2011 and “Summer” in 2014. “I’m trying to work hard to do it more because also, in tandem with that, theres a lot of DJ producers, and I look at myself and I think, ‘what do I have to offer that they don’t? Actually, Pharrell told me something about hitting the notes. Occasionally, people try to persuade me to sing again, and he was one of those people.”
It seems as though Pharrell Williams and others have had an influence on Harris with this single being on his own vocals.