U.K. quartet
Django Django
have been honing their peculiar strain of art-pop since the beginning of the 2010s, weaving together bits of angular surf guitar, glowing synths, and rich vocal harmonies with a strong electronic undercurrent. Over three previous albums, their ability to absorb multiple eclectic styles (new wave, modern psych, Krautrock minimalism) and compress them into something new has made them a consistently interesting band. A decade into their career,
return with
Glowing in the Dark
, their fourth album together. With the bandmates no longer living in a common geographical orbit, a conscious move was made to work more efficiently during their recording sessions. At the pace of roughly a song a day, they put their heads together and approached each song with a newfound alacrity.
's arrangements are rarely simple and for the most part, this holds true on
, but there is a kind of immediacy and uplift to a number of the songs, particularly the shimmering opener "Spirals" and the bouncy pop of "Free from Gravity." There's always been a slightly obtuse playfulness to the band's music, which comes out here on tracks like the fizzy "Headrush" and especially the title track, a driving electro-dance rocker with a signature hook that resembles their 2012 gem "Default." There is more diverse fare as well, like the dramatic prog-pop of "Night of the Buffalo" with its soaring string coda courtesy of
Syd Arthur
member
Raven Bush
and the lush, acoustic "The World Will Turn." Aside from a fondness for glassy clean bass tones, the overall production is not too dissimilar from their earlier albums. A band already known as stylistic mavericks doesn't necessarily need to keep reinventing itself and yet, after four albums,
enter their middle years seeming a little bit stuck in a mold of their own design. As a whole,
is a mostly solid, well-built album with enough standouts to keep it fresh without venturing too far out of the group's wheelhouse. ~ Timothy Monger