After the bedroom-produced joys of their eponymous 2012 debut, Django Django fell foul of their own soaring ambition on the overblown follow-up, 2015’s Born Under Saturn, which was at times too expansive at the expense of focus. Their third album is as eclectic as ever, a winning meld of sunny harmonies, pulsing Krautrock rhythms and psychedelia-tinged vocals, all refracted through the prism of dance music dynamics. But this time there’s a welcome economy to the songwriting and nothing outstays its welcome.
The uptempo title track is as strong as anything they’ve done: a synth riff that sounds like Kraftwerk reimagining Belly’s Dusted segueing into a beautifully breezy verse and chorus, the result reminiscent of a more carefree Everything Everything. The influences of others – Gary Numan, OMD, Saint Etienne, the Beta Band, inevitably – are scattered throughout Marble Skies, and if there is a criticism it’s that the band cover so many different bases that this at times resembles a (very good) compilation rather than a cohesive artist album. Still, when the results are as good as the irresistible Champagne or the propulsive Tic Tac Toe, that perhaps doesn’t matter much.
