Dan Mangan/Robots vs. Indie queens

This is another shot into the dark. And again I can’t remember who or what tipped me on Dan Mangan first or if I got tipped at all. But it didn’t take much to convince me to listen to it more than once. Actually - the first time I forgot to disable the random-function, so it played for a couple of hours.

I’ve just randomly chosen one of the currently albums of him, but it really doesn’t matter. I’ve listened now a couple of times to three of his albums…

… and each time I like it more. As usually a couple of songs are “just” nice, but some other made it into the “outstanding” category. For example The Indie queens are waiting below: The song starts as a easy-listening solo, then opens up to a duet while interrupting the rhythm occasionally in the second part of the verse instead of the refrain. And while you’re listening to the lyrics you totally miss the simple instrumental setup placed in the background; swelling to are more present (I didn’t want to say dominant) sound-fog and moving back from where it came.

It’s a bit like this song tells his story on a couple of more levels than just the lyrics.

On the contrary to that the second example “Robots” (now you know where the title of the album is coming from) keeps it balance in a different way. Pretty close to the boring standard songs, just played without any love, passion and feeling (like Robots), “Robots” starts only for taking the turn into more and more complexity. Like an awakening the songs wins more and more live just shortly after its beginning, but still sticking to it’s origin.