Album Review

Dan Black – Un

• 13th Jul 2009

Having decided to ditch his identikit indie band The Servant. Black then dumped the instruments, hooked up his laptop and decided the electronic route was to be his next attempt to reinvent himself.

This brave new direction kicks off with ‘symphonies’which is by a country mile the stand out track. It’s slick, hypnotic and rather lovely.

However his rather twee and lightweight vocals are far too reminiscent of poor R & B and the beats rather mask over the fact that tracks such as ‘ecstasy’ lack any kind of substance. The rest of the album seems to follow the same type of direction and at times I can hear the call of the lamentable Bedingfield trying to break through.

‘Alone’ is more of a electro glam stomp-along but the whiney vocal really begins to grate in the lugholes after a while. The saving grace is the chic inspired bass that pulls the track through and makes it more bearable to stomach.

The lack of any aggression in the songs (‘cocoon’, ‘cigarette pack’) really emphasises that the album needs a damn good kick up the arse musically!!

Heavy leanings towards R & B rather than a Calvin Harris pop approach really sees Dan Black out in the cold. A drastic rethink is on the cards if he wants to crack the market!!