Youngr

Youngr serves as the solo vehicle for Dario Darnell, the songwriter, producer, instrumentalist, and vocalist behind an eclectic brand of slightly off-center pop. As the son of August Darnell, known professionally as Kid Creole, Darnell first appeared on record in the early 1990s, contributing to his father’s album To Travel Sideways. One track from that release included wind chimes played by Darnell and his sibling Lorne Ashley Brigham-Bowes, two youngsters whose creative partnership would continue well into adulthood. In the late 2000s the pair recorded and performed together in Liverpool under the name Picture Book, and in 2013 they received co-writing credit on Cher’s “My Love.” Darnell subsequently secured a solo contract with Island, the same major label once home to his father. Operating as Youngr, he issued several tracks between the second half of 2016 and the start of 2017, among them the free-spirited party cut “Out of My System,” the ballad “Too Keen,” and acoustic takes on both songs. He also reworked Tove Lo’s “True Disaster” by fusing vintage disco-funk with early house textures. A compilation drawing together these various releases appeared in January 2018 as This Is Not an Album.