HiFi Sean & David McAlmont: Daylight
(Plastique Recordings)
All Formats Available
Available 16th August
HiFi Sean & David McAlmont deliver the soundtrack to the summer with a solid selection of blissed out bangers on Daylight.
The duo follow last year’s Happy Ending, one of LTW’s Albums of The Year, latterly described by the national press as. ‘A thoughtful, emotional, postmodern gem,’ with Daylight, which has already been hailed as ‘triumphant escapist pop’ with its sunbaked Balearic Beats which celebrates, expresses and explores the colours of summer. Daylight, is the first in a pair of albums the duo will release over the next six months with Twilight due in early 2025.
Unlike their debut collaboration, Happy Ending, with a quarter of the tracks lasting over 5 minutes (not that was anything wrong with that), the follow up is tighter with only two hitting the four minute mark. This disciplined approach means that each of the 12 pieces feel immediate and don’t mess around. 100% Bangers you could say.
Daylight begins with the titular track, a prelude, which I am sure will prove to be cyclical with the release of next year’s album, offering a theme of what’s to come with the sampled gospel choir setting the tone for the album with the daylight, sunshine, dance, embrace.” This is followed by the recent single, Sun Come Up, an electrifying psych out sun worshipping anthem, described by Sean as, “Probably the best record we have released”.
Throughout the album, recorded towards the top of a London high rise, you get the feeling that the pair are driving each other forward. You Are My is a rave anthem in the making but lasting not much longer than the length of a classic pop single. No matter how many times I’ve listened to it I immediately feel as if I’m engulfed in dry ice and surrounded by strobes. Next is Coalition, a track which is destined to soundtrack driving along the West Coast Pacific Highway with the hood down and the warm air in your flowing hair (if you have any) and contains the great line, “Slipping up in a banana republic”.
Daylight continues with Meantime, “I liked that we were working a solar cycle theme on this record and that we could invoke GMT, even though our ‘meantime’ here is more psychic than physic” says David and Golden Hour, of which a he says is, “A good metaphor for that all-encompassing feeling that cannot last, good as it feels.”
First release from the album, Sad Banger follows, which Sean explains, “Is a euphoric but melancholy heart wrenching song that lifts you but at same time brings a soulful tear to your eye.” There is no letup in quality or impact, as the album continues to transmit a warmth and the urge to dance.
USB-USC is a highlight and sees David running through his to do/packing list before he heads off on holiday. It’s uplifting and proves the singer could sing the phonebook and make you want to listen.
Summery is an unashamed love letter to the season, which is apt as Sean reflects, “I had this bizarre day last summer where it was gorgeous no clouds in the sky, and I felt a huge creative urge to make music and sat and wrote over 20 little 60 sec sound bites which at least 8 of those were the birth of the music on Daylight.”
Living Things, 10 tracks in, is the first time the pace slows a little as the album enters the final quarter, it’s reflective in its tone, reminding us that, “We are not inconsequential.” Of the track David says, “It’s the bridge between Happy Ending and this album, for me it’s like great Americana. The big problem that we all have is not knowing how to love each other, which isn’t about intimacy. I mean, it can be communitarian, it can be a case of just being kind, but I think the reason that we often do that is because we think that we’re not flesh and blood. It’s a good reminder that that.”
Living Things is the calm before the storm. The penultimate track, Celebrate, is so familiar you’ll be sure you’ve heard it somewhere before, and once you’ve heard it it’s likely to be an earworm for a few days. When the pair first performed it at Rockaway Beach at the beginning of the year, despite no-one hearing the album at that point, the crowd were dancing and joining in before you get to the halfway point. The same happened at subsequent dates through February in London, Manchester and Glasgow. It’s a radio-friendly club track which is likely end up having a life of its own.
Daylight closes with the driving synth-washed The Show, influenced by Sean’s love of sci-fi electronic composers. It is both inward looking and meta as it breaks down the music and art of ‘a show’, and the chorus, “If the band plays on, you have to let the show go on,” before dropping into another coda. Whilst we know that Twilight is coming, hopefully this would suggest there’s no stopping this dynamic duo. (As Sean himself says, “If it is in your blood to be part of ‘the show’ then you will always persevere”)
HiFi Sean & David McAlmont’s second album deserves to be soundtracking those impromptu afternoons in the sun with friends and long summer evenings both this year and in many more to come.
RSVP for the Daylight Listening Party on Bandcamp at 9pm on Monday 12th August
Catch the pair on their Autumn Tour. Tickets available here
14/11 – Leeds, Oporto
15/11 – Birmingham, Dead Wax
17/11 – Manchester, Night & Day
18/11 – Glasgow, King Tuts
20/11 – Brighton, Alphabet
21/11 – London, Oslo
For more info visit Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him on X (Twitter) as @iainkey
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