Danny L Harle - Cerulean

The producer’s second album shows serious ambition, but isn’t without flaws.

English producer Danny L Harle has made a notable name for himself in the music industry throughout his career, particularly in the last five years or so, with high-profile work with artists such as Dua Lipa and Caroline Polachek. His sophomore LP, Cerulean, released on February 13th via XL Recordings, features both of those artists, as well as a host of others, and feels like a really determined attempt to show off his musical capabilities. 

Naturally, Cerulean aims high when it comes to the production, and mostly delivers on what it goes for. The trance-like sound is executed very well, with mesmerizing, pulsing bass and percussion and shimmering synths building a phenomenal atmosphere. In a way, the album is a perfect representation of its cover – it brings the same sort of cosmic, enigmatic energy. The ambience is balanced out perfectly in the mixes in most cases, really enthralling the listener from beginning to end.There are a few cases where it slips a little bit – in going for a more retro dance-pop and eurodance style sometimes, tracks like “Island (da da da)” end up feeling somewhat dated – like they simply employ the retro style without adding enough of a modern update to make it feel fresh. However, those cases don’t significantly hurt the overall impression of the sound.

The features on the album are a major highlight, too – the vocal performances are very strong throughout, with the electronic processing making them fit the record perfectly, adding a trippy, almost psychedelic feel in many cases. Dua Lipa’s contributions on the track “Two Hearts” and Caroline Polachek’s performance on “Azimuth” are particular highlights, but everyone involved does very well – from PinkPantheress to Oklou. Clairo is the only feature which feels slightly underutilized, with the collaboration with her, “Facing Away”, only lasting just over a minute. But even in that time, her soft, silky vocals over the slower, haunting instrumental provide a great breather.

Cerulean’s main flaw is that, at times, it feels somewhat like it’s going for style over substance. A lot of the tracks feel like they’re following a template with few variations – aside from the intro and outro, and the two brief interlude-like tracks, there doesn’t quite feel like there’s enough structural variety on the project. It also feels almost designed to be listened to on shuffle – once again, outside of the four aforementioned tracks, it feels like the rest can pretty much be interchanged and placed in any order without changing much in the bigger picture of the album.

Overall, while Cerulean isn’t a groundbreaking LP by any means in its genre, it is nevertheless a strong representative of it. There’s still room for improvement when it comes to the composition and structuring, but the leading aspect of it – the production – is done pretty much to perfection, serving as a great showcase of Danny L Harle’s talents and his care and passion for the art. It’s a record with a great deal of energy and a compelling nostalgic touch to some of its tracks, making it a great album to dance to.

7.4/10