by David Jeffries
It's probably not right to compare David Guetta's full-length debut to a band that only had one tune, but Just a Little More Love is the breezy and slick album Stardust never recorded. You could point to Modjo too, but Guetta has that something extra that makes him more of a leader than a follower. He's got modern-day disco down pat and his productions are glistening flashes that have just enough substance to keep listeners returning. Unlike Stardust's parent organization, Daft Punk, Guetta keeps his feet on Earth, focusing on the sensual and empowering rather than the Punk's love of left-field spaciness. If Daft Punk watch the Cartoon Network all day, Guetta watches BET, and the numerous soulful vocals from gospel singer Chris Willis and dance diva Barbara Tucker are the evidence. "Just a Little More Love" and "Love, Don't Let Me Go" are the proven hits, having deservedly filled many a dancefloor by the album's release. But Guetta still has an album's worth of ideas up his sleeve. "Sexy 17" is a winner with could-be-Prince vocals from the mysterious Jack Uzi, and the aggressive "Distortion" is a nice bit of racket that finds Willis doing a call-and-response with a drum machine. The American edition adds some excitement by tacking on Guetta's banging remix of David Bowie's "Heroes," now titled "Just for One Day." Nice extra, but this edition has already screwed up the flow of the original album by swapping some of the tracks and dropping two in favor of remixes. Of course this isn't conceptual like Sgt. Pepper or Dark Side of the Moon, so it only hurts a little.