Album Review Danny L Harle - Harlecore

Remember that fun time when we could all spend our weekends embarrassing ourselves in front of strangers while busting questionable moves on the dance floor? Well, Danny L Harle is bringing the club to our living rooms with long-awaited debut full-length ‘Harlecore’. Named after his signature rave-influenced style that the PC Music affiliate has become known for, across its 13 tracks, ‘Harlecore’ delivers on its party promise, with huge adrenaline-fuelled house beats arming every twist and turn, sure to fill dancefloors once we’re allowed to return. But little distinguishes them from the classic club bangers we all know, ‘Where Are You Now’ and ‘On A Mountain’ sounding much like something Cascada could’ve dropped in the mid-00s. More experimental and fun moments come with MC Boing’s tracks ‘Boing Beat’ and ‘Piano Song’, which have more of the weird hooks associated with the PC Music legacy, while the hyper-pop infused vocals of ‘All Night’ bring it into certified banger territory. But in a post-100 gecs world where we’re all wanting that extra oomph with our dance-floor-fillers, while ‘Harlecore’ may be primed to bring the party, it’s just not quite the mad one we were hoping for.