(album/ GLOUCESTER RECORDING COMPANY)
This is quite possibly the most humble, down-to-earth and exquisite acoustic-pop album I have ever heard. Young man Dan comes from Gloucester and, with multi-instrumentalist and maverick producer George Moorey, has here produced 9 tracks which are frankly too special for words.
All tracks are acoustic based and literally graced with such vocals so chilled and soulful it�s heartening, the beep-backed opener �Any Time Now� (with the 'beeps' & backing vox courtesy of graceful special guests - and friends to Dan - Croydon's must-hear 2-piece jazz-dance act Rococo) is subtly epic in its passive and mature charm. This song starts the album as Dan�s patient and sensitive attitudes towards love and life go on, and never is there any hint of angst or aggression. He�s a hopeless romantic, and deft storyteller too through Now You Belong To Them�s startling brilliance (that also features on the �Glamage� compilation album) and later, �Waking in Audrey�s House' ('Underneath her body I can see somebody').
What Matters Here�s depth is deepened with Mr. Moorey�s Emo-scaling piano undercurrent that nudges Dan�s vocals into its chorus, yet �20,000� houses the coolest chorus rhymes� '20,000 stories told and 20,000 hands raised, 20,000 claims to witness how you make love in 20,000 ways.'
'Sharks Have Fins' ('Watch me stand as he takes a swing') is so so heart-rendingly sweet and so so far-removed from traditional singer-songwriter acoustic fare that this is my favourite track, with Rococo's programming and sampling and Alice White's beautifully-played cello furrowing the heart that's breaking's brow on both this track and the one that follows in 'Ruined' ('Satisfy your own mind'), prior to further Moorey-endorsed piano trickles and the lyrically terse of 'One Last Try' about one mixed-up girl� 'taking off her underclothes, she doesn't want attention, she wants style,'
Each song and every second is warm, reassuring, trusting - and so sure of itself. The gasps of melancholic greatness are impossible to ignore, especially since there isn't one clich� in Dan's non-bookish approach to his songwriting.
'Say Something Dumb,' as a debut album, is thoroughly refreshing and rejuvenating, and Dan's sweet and tender approach to penning and subsequently singing his fantastic lyrics has to be applauded. And naturally fallen in love with. 5/5 (STEVE RUDD)
www.danpierce.co.uk
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