“Blame” is a song by Scottish DJ and producer Calvin Harris featuring English singer John Newman. It was released on 5 September 2014 as the third single from Harris’ fourth studio album Motion (2014).
Background
The single was announced on Twitter on 8 June 2014 and the cover art was also revealed. On 15 August 2014, a different cover art was uploaded onto iTunes as the new official cover art. The original release date of 25 August was also pushed back to 7 September 2014.
On 20 August 2014, a 15-second clip was uploaded to Harris’ Instagram account. The next day, he uploaded another 15-second clip. On 31 August 2014, a third mini clip was released on Instagram. Harris then released two final teasers on 2 and 3 September 2014. Newman said of the song: “It will live up to the hype that’s been built. I’m very excited about it, I think it’s the next step up in my career.”
Critical reception
The song received positive reviews from music critics. Robbie Daw of Idolator praised the song saying: “‘Blame’ somehow feels fuller and more rounded-out, structurally, than much of his other output. Call it a new era for the Scottish producer/DJ.” MTV Australia described the song as “hot” and “sure to have the crowd singing loud and proud”. Digital Spy’s Lewis Corner gave the song a four star rating out of five, commenting: “Luckily for Calvin, everything he touches these days seems to turn more golden than his glowing tan. Guest vocalist John Newman soulfully insists on the surging bridge, before it bursts into one of Calvin’s infectious four-to-the-floor choruses. It barely shifts away from the formula that’s enabled him to achieve 1 billion Spotify streams, but when it’s proving itself that effective, why resign the Midas Touch?”
We Got This Covered wrote: “Though a bit slower and more down tempo than most of his usual stuff, this is another excellent effort from the Scottish DJ, who continues to craft a unique sound for himself with each new release. John Newman’s soulful vocals go down smoothly as they layer a very catchy melody that soon breaks out into a full-on dance floor hit. Admittedly, it doesn’t grab you quite like Summer did, but it’s still a great song and one that will surely do very well.” Music and Lyrics gave a more nuanced review, writing the song “hasn’t honestly hit as hard as ‘Summer’ did on the first listen, but I’ll definitely label it as a ‘grower’. Not really feeling John’s verses, but he really shines in the let’s-go-to-church hook. ‘Blame’ doesn’t have the best Calvin Harris EDM beat I’ve heard to date, but I can still bop to it.”
Chart performance
On 14 September 2014, the song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Harris’ seventh overall UK number one. This song has since reached number 1 in The Netherlands, top 5 in Ireland and top 10 in other Europe countries such as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Sweden.
Music video
On 9 September 2014, Harris tweeted the music video would premiere “this week”. The video, directed by Emil Nava, was released on 12 September 2014. It was filmed in August 2014. The video begins with both Harris and Newman in separate places in their appropriate houses where they are both on the bed while Newman is watching some models are seen on a film projector. Meanwhile, the models decided to go to a nightclub where one girl gets drunk while other models split where they fall into a sink, beer cooler, puddle and finally a tub. The video ends where the models end up in a river where they are freezing and it shows the sky still shown with a sun in the background.
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