David Guetta is no stranger to the dance music scene, crafting huge crossover club hits like “Love Is Gone”, “The World Is Mine”, and “Love Don’t Let Me Go”, which continue to age gracefully, as deejays across the nation play these songs to death as a part of their “house set”, continuing to churn out mash-up after mash-up built around Guetta’s basslines. But “Love Is Gone” remix number four-thousand-and-eighty might be getting pushed to the back of the virtual crates, as Guetta has outdone himself with the release of his fourth studio album, One Love. Realizing he is no longer a household name overseas, he’s brought out the big guns, collaborating with a variety of big name U.S. artists, such as Akon, will.i.am, Kelly Roland, and others.

Guetta preceded this move however by producing much of the Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D. album, which worked as a saving grace for a group that was beginning to sound a little stale, despite their endless collection of hit singles. Guetta and will.i.am masterminded the new style of hip-house, resulting in the group’s biggest song ever, the summer-smash “I Got A Feeling”, as well as “Rock That Body”, and a seminal “Boom Boom Pow” remix. Will returns the favor on One Love, showing up three times on the LP, first on Guetta’s stripped down remix version of “I Gotta Feeling”, which subtracts the Fergaliciousness of the original (la chaim!), and trades it for a ridiculous rise-up and bonkers breakdown. “I Wanna Go Crazy” is another potential club smash, featuring will.i.am on rocking the mic solo, obviously inspired by Bodyrocker’s “I Like The Way You Move” (of “upside-down-dancing-guy-in-the-Diet-Coke-commercial” fame). Later we find two Peas in a pod on “Turn It Up” (feat. will.i.am and apl.de.ap), that builds up with will’s taunting hook, and then climaxes into a nasty, aggressive bounce.

But will and company are not the stars of this LP, clearly David Guetta himself is, as he brings out the best his collaborators. Kelly Rowland redefines herself as here – twice – making you forget she was ever second-fiddle to Beyonce in Destiny’s Child (or a victim in Freddy Vs. Jason, for that matter). Instead, she finds her niche as a solo artist, going beyond occasional urban radio hit to full on disco diva, starting with the incredible “When Love Takes Over”. With Coldplay-esque pianos, Rowland belts out one of the most memorable female vocal house songs in recent memory, sure to join the ranks of Robin S “Show Me Love” and most likely to net her a Grammy. She follows up later on “The Way You Love Me”, which pounds with alarming electro keyboard and bass stabs that you can’t help but get into. Guetta’s R&B collaborations don’t end there, but these are by far the strongest.

Later we find him attempting to get the same level of success out of Estelle, with the album’s title track, “One Love”, a sort of “I Will Survive”-meets-Bob-Sinclar-hippy-house track. Here, he (naturally) takes a more European approach, going less for the U.S. commercial formulas, still met with solid results. Better though, are his collabos with American male soul singers, Ne-Yo, Akon, and Novel. “Choose” features Ne-Yo seamlessly adapting to Guetta’s grimey, rolling basslines, while Kelly Rowland provides backup. Meanwhile, Akon’s “Sexy Bitch” is the biggest U.S. smash on this record – and while Guetta’s version gets the job done just fine, it merely lays the ground work for superior versions from DJ Chuckie & Lil Jon and Afrojack officially commissioned by Guetta for the single. The unsung hit of this record however is the electric-piano driven “Missing You”, where former Rawkus soul singer Novel steals the spotlight from his mainstream peers in this melodic, atmospheric house banger. And Kid Cudi also sounds like he could have another club smash on his hands with “Memories”, a simple piano driven track that takes rap lyrics out the equation completely, and instead taps his potential as an infectious hook writer (the very talent which propelled “Day ‘N Nite” to success).

Guetta’s former collaborator Chris Willis isn’t forgotten, now that he has a couple of celebs in his pocket. The southern gentleman whom helped “Love Is Gone” and “Love Don’t Let Me Go” returns for another pair of similarly veined tracks on both “The Sound Of Letting Go” and “Gettin’ Over”, and while these tracks fit in with the rest of the album just fine, sometimes they do get lost in the fold. The only real oddity here is “If We Ever”, featuring Makeba. Here, we find Guetta out of his element a bit, allowing the vocalist to auto-tune her way through his meditative track. We guess he wanted to end it with a slow song.

Longtime fans of David Guetta may be upset that he “sold out” so-to-speak, however he is a master at his craft, and it shows on One Love. This is obviously his attempt at building a pop album (more so than his last ironically titled LP, Pop Life), as he succeeds in making a commercial album that is actually listenable, in today’s market of watered down production and syrupy slow jams. Even people that aren’t fans of these artists particularly, will be able to appreciate what Guetta has done here. I gotta feeling that the material include on One Love with have long running legs and far reaching arms, churning hit after hit out of it over the next year. “Love Is Gone” may finally be gone for good….. – DJ Pizzo