Sunday 13 September 2009



Are we cool now?

(photo: Jonathan Taggert)

(photo: Jonathan Taggert)

You’d never know it from the way it’s been gathering dust on my desk for the last couple of months, but I’ve been really interested in cracking open Nice Nice Very Nice, the second album from Vancouverite Dan Mangan.  Bryan@HeroHill has been championing the LP all summer, so that was enough encouragement for me.  Distractions have gotten in the way of me giving it a real good listen until now, and in keeping what’s becoming the norm around HQ-QBiM, I’m one song in and already regretting not listening earlier.

In the liner notes, Mangan prefaces the lyrics to album opener and first single “Road Regrets” with, “In March of 2007, driving from El Paso to Austin, I drank 64 ounces of cheap gas-station coffee in a day; it was disgusting.”  Indeed.  Thankfully the song this particular caffeinated cross-country trek inspired is the antithesis of disgusting.  From the opening acoustic guitar riff you can see the road and countryside blur by you and feel the steady hum of automobile vibrations in your bones.  It’s damn near the perfect song.

While iTunes wants to call Nice Nice Very Nice folk, I think it better fits alongside the acoustic indie-pop godfathers the protagonist of “The Indie Queens are Waiting” is trying to impress.  Mangan’s roots are definitely planted in singer-songwriter terrain, which is perhaps why the folk tag seems like a good fit.  It’s getting ever more difficult to peg an album to any particular genre in 2009′s music universe, so suffice to say that fans of Elliott Brood will find something to love here (“Sold”), as will admirers of Jason Collett (“Fair Verona”).

Dan Mangan sings with wit and humour, but never comes off as being gimmicky or clichéd.  His raspy, well-worn voice imbues sincerity and warmth, like a favourite funny uncle who may not say a lot, but when he does deign to offer a thought, you know it’s going to be worth hearing.  Don’t be a fool like me and leave your favourite funny uncle sitting on your desk unopened for a few months, okay?  It’s kind of hard for him to breathe through that cellophane wrapper.

MP3: Dan Mangan “Road Regrets”
Myspace: Dan Mangan
Twitter: Dan Mangan





by J. Di Gioia | 2 Comments »

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 at 9:30 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Are we cool now?”

herohill September 14th, 2009 at 9:08 am

Man.. Dan is such a talent. I hope you like the whole record as much as you like the single.

cheap acoustic guitars December 28th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

Thank you for this, I will return later.