Those with long memories will remember Sean Dickson (as Hi FI Sean is known to his Mum) as the vocalist and driving force of 80s indie guitar types the Soup Dragons, and David McAlmont from his Brit Pop era hit with Bernard Buttler, “Yes”. That all happened a long time ago but, unlike many of their contemporaries, neither of these two can be accused of being stuck in a creative rut since their glory days.
Daylight is actually the duo’s second album and it couldn’t feel more different to the sounds that first brought them to public prominence. In fact, 90s house music, synth pop, gospel and soul are the sounds that inform this disc, all with big smiles plastered on the duo’s faces and an urge to get on the dancefloor.
Make no mistake (and the title is a sure giveaway), this is emphatically an album for the summertime. For chilling in bars overlooking sunbaked beaches, for looking cool (but not too slick) and for feeling happy and hopeful that good times will keep on coming – even when McAlmont sings “I went to war with age and age won” on the otherwise joyful “Living Things”.
Kicking off with the giddy Rotary Connection-flavoured electro pop of the title track, Daylight spreads good vibes from its first notes to the final fade out of closing tune, “The Show”. Taking in the soulful rave pop of “Sad Banger” and the pulsating Italian disco sounds of “Celebrate”, this is uplifting and soulful music for raising your hands in the air and losing your inhibitions in a crowd of like-minded people in the middle of a dancefloor. And with hip-swinging tunes and euphoric grooves like these, now that the summer has finally kicked in, how could anyone but the most hardcore miserabilists have any complaints?
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