With the release of their new album, "Illuminate," The Heroic Enthusiasts have delivered ten songs that are a masterclass in luminous indie-pop. Running for just over 36 minutes, the project is both polished and revelatory, glimmering with lush synths, magnetic melodies, and atmospheric depth that pulls you back for multiple rotations.
What makes "Illuminate" particularly thrilling is a pillar in pop music production, Hague's fingerprints have been embossed on some of the most precedent-setting works in the genre, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, and Erasure, and his addition to Illuminate gives the album a timeless sheen, one that offers it feel both retro-orienting and future-forward.
The album has many highlights, but “All I Want” is a moody, melodic centerpiece. Pulsing with urgency and poetic longing, the sort of track gets under the listener’s emotional skin. Similarly, “Jadded” offers the kind of hypnotic marriage of self-reflective lyricism and bright synth-pop textures that go from melancholy to euphoria in under four minutes.
Each song on "Illuminate" plays like a chapter in a cinematic experience twirling in psychedelic colors out of a neon haze, pushed forward by thought-provoking lyrics and layered production. From the shimmery opening tones to the elegant close, the band holds crisp cohesion, inviting listeners into their reflective but hopeful world.
With well-deserved praise from Apple Music throughout the indie sphere, "Illuminate" is a sound of a band entering a prime season, clicking with a legendary producer, and delivering the kind of music sound that good feels necessary.
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