Danny L Harle: Cerulean review – an earnest homage to early 00s bangers or a poor imitation?

(XL)On a high-minded album boasting a weighty guest list including Dua Lipa and Clairo, the superproducer lacks the hooks of the pop-trance he’s so heavily influenced byCerulean is a confusing business. It is billed as Danny L Harle’s debut album, which it definitely isn’t – his actual debut album, Harlecore, came out in 2021, although in at least one sense, Cerulean is markedly different from its predecessor. It’s the weighty guestlist, featuring Clairo, Caroline Polachek, PinkPantheress, MNEK and more, a reflection of Harle’s ascension into the major leagues of pop production: he’s worked with Polachek before, as well as Florence + the Machine and Dua Lipa (who also features on Cerulean), among others.But in another way, it’s markedly similar. As with Harlecore, its chief source material is the kind of pop-trance big on BBC Radio 1 in the early 00s and the speedy, cheesy, Eurodance music on which the wildly successful Clubland brand was founded in the same era. This it presents with high seriousness. “This album is my message,” offers Harle in the accompanying blurb. “I hope it is received.” A press release suggests that he is drawing on “a particular strain of Italian artistry that encompasses the Renaissance composer Monteverdi and the Y2K club bangers of Eiffel 65”. Continue reading...