For his sixth album, the mega-popular French DJ-producer has changed his working methods, building tracks acoustically rather than adding vocals to a beat. It’s not easy to gauge the difference: Listen still delivers the familiar crowd-pleasing builds and drops, the formulaic song structures. Some credit is due for bringing together such a diverse bunch of guest vocalists, from the Script to John Legend to Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but rarely do they force Guetta out of his comfort zone. One exception is Nicki Minaj, who elicits a relatively taut, slinky beat from him on Hey Mama. But for the most part it’s (lucrative) business as usual.
