He made his name with a song that referenced the 1980s and a debut album that was clearly indebted to that decade, and now Scottish DJ Calvin “Acceptable in the 80s” Harris has looked to the 1990s for inspiration.

But while his first album pilfered much that was good about dance in the 80s, its follow-up ransacks the more dubious aspects of the genre in the 90s — especially handbag house, as it was known.

It's a movement that hasn't stood the test of time particularly well, not least when one considers the simple, creative-free nature of the beats and the rubbish sloganeering that passed as lyrics — when there were lyrics, that is.

Harris has clearly found something in the oeuvre of handbag's chief exponents — self-styled superstar DJs Jeremy Healy and Brandon Block — because this album sounds like it could have been delivered by either of them, circa 1996.

Opening song The Rain sounds like something you would hear blaring from the speakers of some suburban club more than a decade ago.

Harris clearly knows how to write anthems to stick in the memory, but its sunny, upbeat disposition is rendered comical with one repeated line: “These are the good times in your life/ So put on a smile and it will be all right.”

There are plenty more hectoring words that try to force jollity on this album — a ploy bound to have precisely the opposite effect. Nobody could expect stadium dance — as Harris calls his new departure — to offer subtlety, but the bland, brainless manner with which he bangs the listener over the head is unforgivable.

The title track is the best of a moribund lot and it comes resplendent with pop hooks, but on the whole, this sorry collection is dispiritingly devoid of ideas and invention.

Burn it: Ready for the Weekend