Danny L. Harley: Cerulean Review – A Serious Homage to 20th Century Bands or a Bad Imitation? | music

Cerulean is a confusing business. Billed as Danny L Harle’s debut album, it certainly isn’t – his actual debut album, Harlecore, came out in 2021, though Cerulean is markedly different from its predecessor, in at least one respect. It’s a significant guest list, which includes Clairo, Caroline Polachek, PinkPantheress, MNEK and more, and is a reflection of Harle’s rise to the big leagues of pop production: he’s worked with Polachek before, as well as Florence + the Machine and Dua Lipa (who also appeared on Cerulean), among others.

But in another way, it’s remarkably similar. As with Harlecore, its main source is the genre of big pop on BBC Radio 1 in the early 2000s and the fast and vulgar Eurodance music on which the hugely successful Clubland brand was founded in the same era. This is presented very seriously. “This album is my message,” Harley offers in the accompanying announcement. “I hope it’s received.” A press release notes that it is based on “a particular strain of Italian art that includes Renaissance composer Monteverdi and the Eiffel 65 band Y2K.”

It must be said that the influence of the composers of Blue (Da Ba Dee) is more evident than that of Monteverdi in the album containing tracks called Laa, Te Re Re and Island (Da Da Da). It should also be said that if you start talking about the artistic connection between Monteverdi and Eiffel 65, and indeed the inherent message of Euro-pop trance, you are setting yourself up for accusations of being cynically taking the piss. Such an idea also comes to one’s mind when encountering, for example, Laa – which has a hook not unlike that on Darude’s Sandstorm, which is played only on synthesized pipes – or, indeed, Island (Da Da Da), which mixes raucous ecstasy with a playful accordion sound.

Alternatively, Harley may be performing a completely serious riff on the music he really loved during his youth, Azimuth suggested, which features a stunning vocal courtesy of Polaszek and feels like a combination of two distinct hit tropes from twenty years ago: the aforementioned ecstatic pop and the melodramatic gothic hard rock of Evanescent, a cocktail that sounds exactly like a former Soviet republic’s last Eurovision entry.

Elsewhere, there are unparalleled riffs both long and interspersed (the closing “Teardrop in the Ocean” executes a deft shift from ambiance to intensity). A 75-second track featuring Clairo’s unaccompanied vocal begins and ends backed by cinematic strings, and a track featuring PinkPantheress iss so fluid that it makes PinkPantheress’s own works sound like Mahalia Jackson in Newport.

What it doesn’t have is an undeniable pop melody or hook like N-Trance’s Set You Free, Toca’s Miracle by Fragma, or Ultrabeat’s Pretty Green Eyes, something designed to at least temporarily disarm anyone not convinced by the fragility of Harley’s influences. All of this means that Cerulean’s appeal will likely be dictated by how much you like it. If you view the days when the groups Cascada, Kelly Llorenna and Trance Nation topped the charts as an unparalleled high point in pop history, fill your boots. For the rest of us, it’s a sweet, intense experience, the kind that might make you grit your teeth involuntarily.