Django Django – Glowing in the Dark

Since truly bursting onto the scene in 2012 with their self-titled, Mercury-nominated debut, Django Django has become one of the lesser discovered gems of catchy art-rock. The group is likely to be found on any serious indie-pop playlist, as well as many discerningly chosen video game soundtracks.

In the first half of the last decade, the four-piece shared global festival bills with Kevin Parker, but are yet to quite follow his Tame Impala project into the mainstream. However, their latest, Glowing in the Dark, is an eclectic masterpiece that should grab them wider attention.

The record starts with Spirals, a track which lives up to its name with a dizzying, minimalist electronic intro that builds into the kind of mesmerising psychedelic pop of which Parker would be proud. Right the Wrongs then provides a joyous interlude of 60s and 70s rock before the bossa nova of Got Me Worried kicks in. The latter is the kind of song that would both soothe and energise those feeling worse for wear on the second day of a sunny music festival – a tonic when such events seem a long way off.

Guest star Charlotte Gainsbourg provides dreamy vocals that harmonise adeptly with those of frontman and guitarist Vincent Neff on Waking Up. Another track that’s a pure nostalgia trip,  it references  – aptly given her parentage – arty 70s fare.

A triumphant first half concludes with the lead single Free from Gravity, a synth-pop jewel with hints of the late, great Andrew Weatherall’s productions and the bright and breezy Headrush. Matters then turn towards a contrasting interlude with the dark, instrumental The Ark, the moody Night of the Buffalo and the folk-inspired The World Will Turn.

The back end of the project is less of a consistent delight but has its standouts like the funky Kick the Devil Out – think The Stone Roses’ Fools Gold with greater complexity over Jimmy Dixon’s driving bassline and Neff’s soulful falsetto replacing Ian Brown’s tuneless mooing. The title track Glowing in the Dark, meanwhile, is a club banger that will make listeners long for the return of misspent nights on sticky dance floors.

Django Django putting out another great album will come as no secret to music aficionados who’ve followed them alongside the likes of Hot Chip, Metronomy, Friendly Fires and latterly Tame Impala. Glowing in the Dark is proof their genre-traversing pop mastery is one secret that shouldn’t be kept any longer.  

Mark Worgan

Glowing in the Dark is released on 12^th February 2021. For further information or to order the album visit Django Django’s website here.

Watch the video for Free from Gravity here: