Going into 2013 both Alesso and Calvin Harris were on a role with Calvin Harris coming off the back of releasing his incredible ‘18 Months’ album and Alesso having released the biggest tracks of his career at the time with ‘Calling (Lose My Mind)’ and ‘Years.’ Following on from this success they combined their talents to deliver the progressive house classic, ‘Under Control.’
This track is a perfect combination of Alesso and Harris’s styles along with some brilliant vocals from Theo Hutchcraft of the British synth pop duo Hurts who had been friends with Calvin Harris for years though this would be their first time working together. Speaking with NME, Theo said they “wanted to make it (the song) a representative of the three of us” which was perfectly achieved with each artist having parts of the song where their influence shone through such as the chorus where Alesso’s euphoric progressive house style takes centre stage.
‘Under Control’ was a huge hit debuting at number one in the Official UK Singles Chart which was Alesso’s first of many number hits to come. The track would appear on Alesso’s debut album ‘Forever’ and Calvin Harris’s ‘Motion’ album with it being a massive highpoint on both and has since gone on to receive just shy of 600 million streams on Spotify.
When it comes to naming the best collaborations of all time in electronic music, ‘Under Control’ is one that cannot be ignored. Its commercial success is impressive, however it is far surpassed by the lasting love from the electronic music community along with its great message of cherishing life and living it to max with no regrets.
