Cerulean

In the world of electronic pop, Danny L Harle is something of a Max Martin figure. Over the past several years, the English producer and songwriter has become a go-to collaborator for both emerging and established stars, generating an impressive list of hits while pushing the genre into colourful new directions.The music Harle makes as a solo artist is decidely weirder. As a member of PC Music, the revolutionary collective out of London, Harle helped define the exaggerated, bubblegum-and-supersaw sound that defined early hyperpop. On 2021's Harlecore — a marvellously absurd, high-concept album that imagined a virtual club soundtracked by Harle's four rave-focused alter-egos — he dove headlong into happy hardcore, gabber and mákina, miraculously managing to make these oft-derided subgenres of techno sound both futuristic and transgressive (if not quite cool).With Cerulean — which Harle has described as his "true debut" — the 36-year-old has taken a big swing, attempting to deliver a big-tent electro-pop album without watering down the sharp-edged whimsy that has long characterized his sound. So what happens when a gaming nerd and Eurodance enthusiast who happens to have a rolodex filled with today's brightest pop stars decides to cash in on years of good will? You get a strange, riveting and puzzling album; a star-studded affair that is occasionally messy, but never dull.Following a short, icy instrumental, Cerulean barrels out of the gate with "Starlight," a maximalist rave-up featuring PinkPantheress, whose gentle vocals guide listeners through a rapid succession of techno soundscapes that whiz by like a glitched out video game. The exhilarating single is followed by "Azimuth," one of two tracks featuring Harle's frequent collaborator Caroline Polachek, the art-pop auteur whose soaring falsetto provides a perfect foil to the song's frosty, robotic synths.Harle also conjures magic on "Crystallise My Tears," a euphoric dance floor-filler that juxtaposes heavily processed vocals from French rising star Oklou with a massive hook from British singer MNEK. Likewise, "Raft in the Sea" draws heavily on the sound of Y2K Eurodance artists like Eiffel 65 and Gigi D'Agostino; while Harle is not the only artist currently mining that sound (see recent releases from FKA twigs, Austra and Romy), few artists are capable of nailing the genre's emotional current while steering clear of empty nostalgia or other cringe-inducing trappings.Not everything works, though. "Two Hearts," which features disco-revivalist Dua Lipa, is a perfectly serviceable pop song, but lacks the fundamental eccentricity that otherwise runs through Cerulean. Built around a well-sung but ultimately flat hook, the song — which was added to the album just weeks before its release — feels out of place, a cynical ploy to gin up extra streams by latching onto the titanium coattails of a superstar. Clairo fans might also be disappointed to discover that her contribution takes the form of a quickly forgettable interlude clocking in at just over a minute.Fortunately, Cerulean is more than just a collection of its high-profile features; in fact, it works best when Harle leans into his own weirdo tendencies. Take, for example, "Laa," an ear-candy sound collage of hardcore techno saws and distorted bass drops that harkens back to the haywire vibes of Harlecore. And then there's the album standout "Island (da da da)," which features vocals from Harle's six-year-old daughter, Nico. Built around a hokey accordion line, it pulls together all the threads that make a great Harle song: the subversively artificial sheen of hyperpop, the impellent trance rhythms, and an earnest, heart-tugging chorus that cuts through the chaos.It's possible that hyperpop purists and longtime Harle fans will wince at the sanded-down edges and softened tones that make up this album — go listen to "Boing Beat" or "Interlocked" for an ungentle reminder of how bonkers Harlecore remains a half-decade a later. And yet, Cerulean is undeniably fun, and cements Harle's standing as a singular artist in the world of progressive pop.It's also guaranteed to scare off the normies.