There just seems something terribly wrong with wasting all that inertia for nothing. It feels like there's only so much inertia in the universe, and these guys are spending it fruitlessly.
Anyway, that's my deep thought for the day. Now on to the music.
Disc 376 is...Oh Fortune
Artist: Dan ManganYear of Release: 2011
What’s Up With The Cover?: It looks like a picture from the Great Depression, with people lining up to get to California and away from the dust bowl. It's a hell of a world sometimes.
How I Came To Know It: I was introduced to Dan Mangan by my friends Joel and Sherylyn, who bought me his second album "Nice Nice, Very Nice" for my birthday. I liked that album a lot, but when I bought the one that preceded it I was disappointed. Joel encouraged me to not give up on him and get this third one, and he was right - it was another good one.
How It Stacks Up: If you've been reading along (yes - more reading comprehension), you'll know I have three Dan Mangan albums. I'd put this one second, or middle of the pack.
Rating: 3 stars.
Strangely, I just mentioned this album back at Disc 372, when I admitted I'd uploaded it for an idle listen when I didn't feel like giving "Bachelor Pad Royale" a second listen before reviewing it. Little did I know that I'd be rolling it only a few albums later.
Every artist Joel and Sherylyn have put me on to in the last few years has resulted in me buying multiple albums (The Dead Weather, Mother Mother, The Kills, Gogol Bordello) and Dan Mangan is no exception.
Mangan is a Vancouver indie act that blends understated pop arrangements with folk sensibilities. I'm not generally a fan of indie, but I like it best where it intersects with folk, so Mangan is right in my wheelhouse.
His voice isn't particularly powerful, and he doesn't demonstrate a great range, but he has an honesty in his delivery and his phrasing has a way of making you feel there is a torrent of additional thought underneath what are often very simple lyrics. It is a winning combination.
Musically, he uses a surprisingly large number of instruments for music that sounds so simply produced. This is becoming a lost art in modern pop music, where everyone seems to think more layers equals more better. The results are usually about as compelling as that last sentence; well-meaning but ultimately mangled.
By contrast, "Oh Fortune" is Manganed - the record features the usual Big Four (vocals, guitar, bass and drums) and then adds in a whole horn section. When I say horn section, I don't just mean a few trumpets here and there either - we're talking trombones, clarinets, french horns - the works. He also has about four different types of organs, a bunch of strings and a piano or two.
The trick is that he brings each in only when they are needed, allowing the range of instrumentation to communicate a lot of different sounds, but keeping the whole nice and simple, with lots of audio handles for your ear to get a hold of.
Lyrically, the songs are fairly basic and understated - it is more Mangan's delivery that makes you a believer. He does stray into that indie habit of falling in love with a series of clever phrases that don't always string together into a compelling narrative. No doubt there are music fans that like this approach, but it isn't for me. One high point is "Post-War Blues" which begins satirically:
"Let's start a war for the kids.
A purpose for which to unite
Make them some words they can mince
What they don't know they won't mind."
This song is more than satire though, as Mangan gives voice to more than post-war confusion, but a more general post-modern confusion. One that affects him so profoundly he muses over something as dark as war, just in the seeking of purpose. These examinations of directionlessness is what indie is best at, and Mangan does it better than most.
All that said, I have three complaints about this album, two minor and one major.
First, it is heavily introspective. This isn't really a fault at all, and on headphones (which is how I'm listening as I write this) it is excellent. However, the lack of a lot of musical peaks and valleys make it harder to enjoy in the car or on the stereo, where it has to compete with ambient sound. Even when I was walking to work, I had to pause it a couple of times for traffic, just so I could give it a fair and full listen. Hardly a fault, since many of life's most beautiful things open up to you in quieter moments, but still worth mentioning.
More annoying is Mangan's habit of naming songs something clever rather than something descriptive. The first two tracks are "Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All" and "How Darwinian" - neither track ever says anything remotely akin to these. I even like the first song, but if all else fails, how about naming it after the first line, "Both feet together..." That would've been a fine name, Dan.
The worst offender on this front is the last song, "Jeopardy" which is a song entirely composed of questions. Get it? Like the show where the answers are in the form of questions? Yes, I get it, Dan, but sadly it brings me to my more major complaint. Mangan is a smart guy, and that comes across in his lyrics, and his song composition. However, sometimes (as in "Jeopardy") it feels more like he is experimenting with form, when he should be providing a final product.
I absolutely love some of these songs, but others feel like something that came out of writer's workshop, excercises for his mind, not finished products. Another example would be "Daffodil" where he tries to write an entire chorus out of different flowers:
"Oh daffodil, my petunia
Oh daffodil, my rose."
I'm not even sure what the hell this means, but its strained imagery pulls me out of the moment. A big part of music for me is putting me into the moment, so when this happened it browned me off.
Luckily, it didn't happen that often. In fact, even "Jeopardy" managed to be one of my favourite songs, despite Mangan's efforts to wreck it by insisting I look behind the curtain. Ultimately, he's good enough to pull it off.
Best tracks: About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All, Post-War Blues, Starts With Them Ends With Us, Jeopardy
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