Album Review : Dan Black - Un
- Written by Paul Taylor
For those not familiar with Dan Black, a brief introduction - he was the former front man of minority indie band The Servant until they split in 2007, before decamping to Paris. Two years later, Black re-emerges as a fixture on just about every website/publication's early 'ones to watch in 2009' list.
Most of the buzz surrounding Black centred on a track which isn't even on the album - 2008's 'HYPNTZ' was essentially a mash-up of the drums from 'Umbrella' by Rihanna and vocals from Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Hypnotize', all set and ready for release, only to be denied commercial clearance by Biggie's representatives, sending Black back to the drawing board.
The result of going away and penning new lyrics is 'Symphonies' - still maintaining the 'Umbrella' drum section paired with samples from cult '80s sci-fi flick 'Starman'. It works well as an opener and gets straight to the point of its origins - “I can't disguise I was hypnotized/Lost the track, struggled back” and also provides Black the opportunity to showcase his abilities to write catchy pop music, later seen on 'U + Me =', which by far offers the catchiest chorus on the record.
Notably there isn't anything on Un worthy of coming remotely close to an Ivor Novello award, mainly because Black has either neglected or been unable to consistently write elaborate chorus and verse, instead focusing on cleverly matching samples with lyrics simple enough to sing along to in the car or at work. However, the danger of writing lyrics so simple is that they neither engage or challenge the listener and this occurs with increasing frequency throughout the album, but is especially prevalent on 'I Love Life' - where short bursts of word and phrase are reeled off in a style akin to Mike Skinner of The Streets - “Superstitious/So suspicious/Watching TV/Doing dishes” the difference being Black's lyrics are unable to effectively flesh out situations and emotions in the way that Skinner's can.
Un is very much an album of two, almost opposing prospects - either the up-tempo, catchier, dare-it-be-said more 'radio friendly' tracks like previous singles 'Symphonies', 'Alone', 'Yours' and the potential release in 'U + Me ='. Tracks like these - that viciously permeate one's consciousness through the medium of 'pop' music warrant airplay in spades. The flipside is a folly of softer, almost saccharin-laden melodies like 'Ecstasy', and whilst they do well to change the pace of the record, their overall effect leaves Un a sense of imbalance, causing the latter part of the record to veer perilously close to a electro-chill-out coma, much like those Ministry Of Sound compilations released every quarter.
Despite its aforementioned flaws, Un isn't a bad record, in fact quite the opposite - and those willing to invest time in it will find that the attention so far paid towards Black is well deserved, because on show is both ability and potential, even if neither are fully realised to the same degree as his peers on those all-important 'ones to watch' lists. The over-riding concern is that due to the way that 'pop' music is now seen as a commodity to be used and then recycled (or in this case, have new vocals laid over it) Black may only get this one chance to shine, because as everyone knows - hype very rarely strikes twice.