AWmusic

There are a lot of singer-songwriter/guy-with-a-guitar types out there, here’s why: 1/ it’s a relatively easy genre to get into — in 00s, to put out an album you need a guitar and a Mac; 2/ there’s a relatively low degree of difficulty putting together a s-s album — it’s hard, unless you have zero talent, to sound really bad; 3/ it’s a great way to score chicks — see Mayer, John; and, b/c of reasons 1, 2, and 3 there is a sort of self-perpetuating cycle where, it appears at least, to be an ever increasing number of singer-songwriter/guy-with-a-guitar types out there. And though my evidence is purely anecdotal, I definitely get way more singer-songwriter albums sent my way than anything else.

So, given all this, Dan Mangan and his album Nice, Nice, Very Nice is all the more impressive.

The album starts off with “Road Regrets”, which, if you were to just listen to the guitar part, could be virtually any song written by a non-descript white person in the last 30 years (although, thinking about it, that’s not uncommon with s/s material). But what makes “Road Regrets”, for me at least, is Mangan’s heartwarming nice-guy-with-a-beard gruff but somehow sweet vocals. It’s the sound of a traveller telling stories, but you’re not quite sure how much of any given story is fact and how much is fiction; and he’s not doing it maliciously, maybe just to entertain himself, or those listening.

There’s the aesthetic and a (seemingly) sensitive side (“The Indie Queens are Waiting”, “Fair Verona”, etc.), but there’s also just enough funny, quirky, sort of lyrics — like the whole chorus on “Robots”: Robots need love too, they want to loved by you/They want to be loved by you; or his self depricating admittal that: I’m ambitious when giving up.

While success, and by success I mean making money, depends on a whole variety of things that have nothing to do with music, Dan Mangan has all the ingredients to become a fixture in Canadian music for years to come. He writes music that’s interesting, accessible, but there’s a real lot of substance (whatever that means) in his words… in any event, I’m looking forward to the next album… no rush though Dan… whenever you’re ready…

[mp3] Dan Mangan – Till I Fall
[mp3] Dan Mangan – Not What You Think It Is