You don’t have to meet Dan Mangan to know he’s a gentleman; it’s exposed every time he sings. With a shy smile and a soft spoken demeanor like his, it’s hard to believe that he can belt out a song with this kind of maturity. But he does.
Vocally, Mangan has a gravelly quality to his voice that usually requires a lifetime of whiskey and smokes. While it’s rough, it still remains crisp enough to sing harmonies on some of the more melodic songs on the album.
Lyrically, the songwriting is about as descriptive as you can come without looking at visual representations of each song. If you’ve never encountered Vancouver, heartache, or even robot-love fetishes…you will understand them all after listening to this album.
It’s really no wonder that the Calgary Folk Festival invited Dan to give several song writing workshops this summer. The man just knows good storytelling. If you think that his skills as a wordsmith detract anything from the music; well then guess again. On Road Regrets the band builds around Mangan’s acoustic guitar until there is a full sound that you can’t forget. A banjo pluck here, a piano trill over there, each song is given the right attention in the places they’re needed. On other songs like Sold, the band is in there like the best hillbilly support group. You can tell that Mangan’s band mates are anything but a bunch of slouches.
Nice, Nice, Very Nice also has an element to it that I found in no other album this year: one of those funny feeling close to my heart. My friend Bianca once described a similar affliction known as “chest caving anxiety.” Nice, Nice, Very Nice doesn’t quite give the same amount of tension, but it still has a heavy feeling to it. Sounds sappy and in many way is it, but Dan Mangan really finds a way to bring those feelings out. I really can’t give this album justice with a few words, just be a gentleperson and go listen to it.
Top Tracks: Robots, The Indie Queens are Waiting, Sold
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