After 11 years spent touring and headlining festivals, 20-plus charting hits and hundreds of millions of streams, Chicago duo Louis The Child is anything but unseasoned. Robby Hauldren and Freddy Kennett exude youthful energy, but they’re first and foremost professionals who push the boundaries of what dance-pop can be.

Always working to lift listeners’ spirits, poignant whimsy makes Louis The Child the duo that it is, and all of these elements shine through bright as ever on their sophomore album, The Sun Comes Up. Its 13 tracks explore a variety of tempos, rhythms, genres and moods, filtering it all through the unique choices and perspectives only Louis The Child can deliver.

The 2018 EP Kids at Play was sophisticated enough to be an album for any other group, and by the time their debut LP Here For Now dropped in 2020, the duo solidified itself as masters of elevated pop construction and conceptual approaches to feel-good sing-alongs. Soon after, Hauldren and Kennett created the Black Marble mixtape and visual album. Taking cues from house, juke, techno, moombahton and more, it was wildly unique both to its references and to anything the duo had yet released.

The Sun Comes Up is a return to form that celebrates curiosity, childlike wonder, and gut instinct. From the opening grooves of “Believe It” to the wall of sound on “I’m Not Giving Up,” this album plays like a field trip through a sunny sky. It’s a new chapter for Hauldren and Kennett, one that brings them back home, and they can’t wait to take this show back on the road.