Marble Skies

What they do well, they do here in spades, and the new experiments come off as more than memorable.

It's full of creative songwriting and risks that mostly pay off.

There’s a welcome economy to the songwriting and nothing outstays its welcome.

This album feels purposely written to soundtrack their future barbecues, like they’re just playing what they’d want to dance to. That kind of pure, genuine enthusiasm is always infectious, and ‘Marble Skies’ feels like a joy ride.

They may never make a perfect album--a certain unevenness seems inbuilt in their approach, where not every experiment turns out quite the way you might have hoped--but they’re capable of making music that sounds close to perfection.

More nuanced than previous releases but recognizably brand-related, Marble Skies is another win for Django Django.

The future sound of 2012 is mating here with the current sound of Yates’ wine lodge, and quite possibly creating the sound of 2018.

It's a mature and refined album woven deeply enough into pop's historical fabric to please connoisseurs, but with enough lightness and fun for casual appeal as well.

Marble Skies is at its best, however, where Django Django pushes outward hardest and farthest--in two very different directions. On one end there’s “Sundials,” a beautiful ballad built atop a zig-zagging piano line that lifts the technical wizard’s hat off this band, offering a clear look at the human beings beneath. (The song’s jazzy, harmony-heavy coda is a delight, too.) On the other end is “Surface to Air,” a concoction of humid pop, hiccupping beats and guest vocals by Rebecca Taylor of the British band Slow Club.

Just about every song on Marble Skies is successful. The unfortunate outlier is ‘Surface to Air,’ which features Slow Club’s Rebecca Taylor on lead vocals. The second track on the album, it’s a full-length number that feels like an interlude that outstayed its welcome.

Marble Skies manages to retain the charming diced and spliced sound of their debut while delighting in the sheer joy of experimentation. Crucially, the band have remembered what made that mix work so well, riffing on a rainbow of hooks and melodies but nudging it in experimental directions. Most importantly, it's a whole lot of fun.