Album Review: Django Django – Glowing in the Dark

Spacey synths and acoustic folk all rolled into one daydream 

Join Django Django on an adventure through the stars with their newest album, Glowing in the Dark.  The London-based art rock band marries otherworldly electronic sounds with folksy acoustic beats, creating the perfect music for a mental escape.  

The album plops the listener into “Spirals,” introducing them to a synth-laden fantasy. The beat grows quicker and quicker before spiraling into a wonderful indie pop track that combines futuristic thrills with familiar rock. This funky, electronic, MGMT-esque song is quickly juxtaposed by the track “Got Me Worried,” which takes a left turn at Folksville. Listeners lose the synths for a bit, instead being met with a fast-paced guitar and bright cymbals. 

The folk theme is maintained through the following song, “Waking Up.” Charlotte Gainsbourg’s gentle vocals elevate the song, making it sound like a breath of fresh air blowing through a field of spring flowers. It’s beautifully light hearted and will sweep people off their feet.  It also leads the listener to one of the stand out songs of the album, “Free from Gravity.” The electronic synth beats are back, and just as the song implies, it lifts you up. This song will transform people’s bedroom into the outskirts of space, where all the cool aliens hang out. It’s super catchy with the lyric, “I wanna know what’s your philosophy,” and also includes amazing imagery of floating throughout the great unknown: “spinning closer to the sun, watch us rising through the fire.” 

“Night of the Buffalo” appears towards the middle of the album and includes excellent harmonizations and mysteriously cryptic lyrics. The haunting sound takes the listener to an unknown place, dangerous, but not quite.  The ending of this track features the sounds of violins and other strings, bringing it to a pretty close. “The World Will Turn” is a short, melancholy folk song that could be sung around a campfire in the middle of the desert, with its organic and singsongy vocal harmonies. It’s a great end to whatever adventure one endured while listening to “Night of the Buffalo.” 

The title song, “Glowing in the Dark,” is a fun, fast-paced, funky little song. It sounds like something that would play in some sort of tame alien night club. It’s oddly gentle for a fully electronic song, but provides just the right taste of club life; people can definitely dance to it, even in zero gravity.  

Django Django’s Glowing in the Dark provides everything people need for their escapist moment (at this point, who doesn’t want to escape the monotony of pandemic living at least once a week). This album will fly people to an alien night club, make them dance amongst the stars, sing around a desert campfire, and above all, it won’t let people’s feet touch the ground.

Grace Galarraga: I'm a journalism student with a minor in film studies, currently attending Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. I grew up in New York and moved to California while I was in high school. Before my journey at LMU, I was an Emerson College student in Boston. I'm looking to spark a career in entertainment journalism and publishing. I love everything having to do with writing, music, film and travel.
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