Marble Skies is Django Django’s most experimental and upbeat record yet

The first thing that hits you as soon as you listen to Django Django’s latest offering Marble Skies is that this is undoubtedly their most upbeat and ‘pop-iest’ record yet. Being the quartet’s third album, it is no surprise that they have continued to experiment and have very nearly refined their newer art-rock, neo-psychedelic, electronic sound; a bit of a stark contrast to some of their earlier material. The synths throughout the whole album are broad and sweeping, you cannot help but get caught up in the eclectic combination of sounds, especially when combined with Vincent Neff’s flowing falsetto. The album feels more lucid and shimmery in some respects, something that did not really exist in previous songs – ‘Default, for example.

Title track ‘Marble Skies’ has to be one of the highlights of the whole record. As its name suggests it is truly ethereal, and a great marker for what sets out to be a relatively decent album. The vocals are almost Beach Boys-esque, with a psychedelic backing. The whole album feels like elements of the past sixty years of music pieced together into less than an hour. It definitely works, but only just, it does feel slightly incoherent the more you listen to it.

If it had been released ten years ago there’s no doubt it would have been on every indie playlist

This is definitely the case for second track ‘Surface to Air’ which features Rebecca Taylor from Slow Club on vocals, providing a completely different sound to what came before. The song has hints of early Metronomy, which is not bad and you can definitely ‘groove’ to it, if that’s your thing.

The highlight of the album has to be lead single ‘Tic Tac Toe’. The first ten seconds alone let you know that this is going to be nothing but a great song and it does not disappoint. It’s a classic dancefloor filler. If it had been released ten years ago there’s no doubt it would have been on every indie playlist. That’s the weird thing about Marble Skies, it’s a great album for 2018 but in most ways it feels like it should have existed ten years ago, when this electronic-indie-pop crossover was at its height of popularity in a pre-Alt-J era. The same goes for ‘In Your Beat’, it’s a song that makes you want to get up and dance; its just a shame that the whole thing lacks this continuous punch.

It’s a great album but it feels like it should have existed ten years ago

Its definitely not a bad album by any means and you could argue that it is their best effort so far, especially for the singles. Its only issue is that it is wholly inconsistent. The phrase ‘reach for the moon and even if you miss you’ll land among the stars’ comes to mind in a weird way; Django have aimed high and only just slightly missed the mark. It is lacking that je ne sais quoi that would make it a truly remarkable record. That said Marble Skies will be a great album to put on in the summer at a barbecue, or in the background whilst you are writing an essay and need a bit of psychedelic motivation. Overall, not a bad effort by any means but maybe next time they should reduce the experimentation, just a bit.