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Track Listings
| 1. About As Helpful As You Can Get Without Being Any Help At All |
| 2. How Darwinian |
| 3. Post-War Blues |
| 4. If I Am Dead |
| 5. Daffodil |
| 6. Starts With Them, Ends With Us |
| 7. Oh Fortune |
| 8. Leaves, Trees, Forest |
| 9. Rows Of Houses |
| 10. Regarding Death And Dying |
| 11. Jeopardy |
Product Description
Review
His third album presents a fuller sound than its predecessor, Mangan – a beardy 28-year-old with eyes that could tell a thousand tales without him so much as opening his mouth – now confident to let his voice tear away from the alt-folk crowd that he was once a part of. Instead, he leads rallying calls on tracks such as Post War Blues – a close cousin of Mumford’s more boot-stomping fare – and the title-track, which rides gentle Americana undercurrents to a state of completion that could, in a parallel world where quality genuinely equals success, have whole venues singing along to its dipping and soaring vocals. Of the gentler cuts, which do still dominate, Leaves, Trees, Forest is a particular highlight, gorgeous harmonies drifting behind simple but catchy acoustic motifs. Here, Mangan reins in his voice, speaking rather than singing for the most part. Chamber-pop-styled opener About as Helpful as You Can Be Without Being Any Help at All has an air of The Delgados about it – if the Scottish indie legends had developed a penchant for simmering shanties after a Buckfast session too many.
It’s the quiet ones you’ve got to look for, so they say – whoever ‘they’ actually are – and by releasing Oh Fortune in the UK now, some months after it emerged in the US and Canada, has ensured its voice will hardly be heard by music writers and mainstream listeners alike. But it’s a set that does reward investigation, perhaps not with lasting love but certainly first-few-plays impressions which will last into the New Year. If your albums of 2011 have been those by any aforementioned parallels, pick this up to chase away the winter chills.
--Mike Diver
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Customer Reviews
Had high hopes of this album and on first play found it dirgy. Playing in the car I've grown to like the album as a 'listen to' CD. The music is not especially strong. About 3 tracks - for me - stand out with something a little special in the musical content (I'm less bothered about any deep and meaningful words, or worshipful sleeve notes). For me, first it's the music, next comes who's playing on the CD, who wrote the songs and where was it recorded?
In a sense Dan reminds me a little of Glen Hansard, the Irish songster. Kind of folksy, kind of breaking into rock, kind of nice to listen to, kind of - as yet - undiscovered. At the moment Glen is ahead.
But Dan is worth discovering and if you get the chance to see him then go for it.
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