Harmony House is Sloan Struble’s sophomore album, through his musical project Dayglow. Struble considers Dayglow a band, despite the fact that he is the sole member, and that he recorded, performed, and produced it all by himself. He released Harmony House in 2021, and it is now available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music.
This album’s sound is reminiscent of pop music from the 1970’s and 80’s, touching on “the reality of growing up”, according to the Twitter thread where Struble announced the album. On the same thread, he admitted that “the songs are deeply personal to me, and explore the highs and lows of experiencing success.”
Coming off of the themes of change and optimism found in Struble’s 2019 album Fuzzybrain (which I also reviewed), this album picks up where he left off, both lyrically and sonically. It is an amazing addition to Dayglow’s discography, and it deserves a listen.
The album opens with the song “Something”, which lyrically criticizes how our culture is becoming increasingly more materialistic in nature and how some choose to personify their cars and physical objects, with lines like “call it a car, call it a lady”.
Musically, this song is intended to feel rushed and multi-layered, but it still feels like a pop song. It also includes the first instance of a melodic motif that will appear in many other songs on the album, which represents how memories can sometimes blur together.
The second track, “Medicine”, is the first song that was written for the album, and Struble describes it as “feeling like I had cracked into something new.” It forced him to challenge himself as a producer and a songwriter, and it caused him to make the rest of the songs on this album a lot more personal as a result.
One of the album’s more personal songs, the fifth track “Close To You”, was released as a single before the release of the full album. It was Struble’s first piece of publicly released music since Fuzzybrain, and it was written as a duet. But ultimately, it ended up being a duet between the artist and himself. “The song itself is about the tension between two people at a party that never said hello,” Struble wrote in an Instagram post about the song.
This same situation is referenced again in the next song, “Crying on the Dancefloor”. Struble recalls a time when the person he said no words to was not a person whom he wanted to talk with, but rather it was the one that he’d rather not see. “I thought that I could keep myself together, but I fell apart when you walked through the door,” he sings, and the sounds on this track really elevate this message as well.
The energy in the album picks up again in an almost energetic sound on the eighth track, “Moving Out” where the motif from “Something” returns to tie the story together again. The following track, “Woah Man” was originally written for Struble’s friend who was going through a hard time, but he later realized he was writing about himself. It helped him through many stages of life, and taught him to let go of the past.
The final two tracks on the album are connected swiftly through an amazing transition, and they really serve as a great finale to the album. The motif from “Something” appears yet again, and it’s a bittersweet ending to a coming-of-age album. I’ll let you experience it for yourself by not saying anything more about it.
Overall, this album is truly flawless. It has sounds reminiscent of the 70’s and 80’s, and it is inspired by artists like Stevie Wonder, all combined with the story of a young Sloan Struble learning growing up. It all makes for an amazing indie pop rock album that you need to check out.
And if you enjoy the music of Dayglow, you won’t want to miss the music of HUNNY and Tame Impala.
