Record Collection
3/5
The celebrity DJ turned in-demand producer could easily have titled his third studio disc ‘High-Profile Pal Collection’. Like its predecessors, Record Collection features cameos from a bevy of pop heavy-hitters, including (but certainly not limited to) Q-Tip, Ghostface Killah, Spank Rock and Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow.
Yet whereas 2007’s Version showcased Ronson’s knack for snazzing up other people’s songs, the new set makes a convincing case for his own tunecraft. ‘Somebody to Love Me’, with Boy George, strikes a tender future-soul note, while ‘The Night Last Night’ pulls off the Amy Winehouse thing minus Amy Winehouse. In ‘Lose It (in the End)’, Ronson cleverly layers baroque-sounding synth riffs over a funky Motown-style groove.
But Ronson saves the catchiest ditty for himself and Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon, who trade wry inside-baseball boasts (‘I drive round cities in a chariot/I get preferential treatment at the Marriott’) in the sparkly electropop title track. As always, it’s good to be the boss.
