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Dan Black is one of the bright new talents coming out of the U.K’s geeky Wonky Pop movement. This combines pop, rock, dance, rhythm and blues and hip-hop in a unique mix. There are lots of influences; Peter Gabriel, Prince, Calvin Harris, Madness and Jay-Z to name a view. The end result though is unlike anything else, hence the title of the album “Un.”
There is another reason for the title though. The album was produced while Black was living alone in digs in Paris and ‘un’ of course is French for one. The artist admits that the album was the culmination of a period where he had to be incredibly focussed. This was a very fruitful time but he felt very isolated and alone.
The result though is the key to the album’s appeal. There’s an intensity and passion which few artists today can equal, each song has an energy which you can’t stop help but rock along to. There are massive hooks here to each song but Black is not just a singer/songwriter he is also a master technician of intelligent electronica.
The slight weakness is bound to be cited as his nasal voice but in his defence a lot of huge singers over the last few decades have struggled with their voices and it hasn’t stopped them from becoming famous; Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen to name but three. What’s important though is the strength of the songs and like the aforementioned he certainly scores. The other thing to say is that there is perfectionism here, the execution is well controlled and he always seems to hit the notes absolutely correctly.
Favourite tracks on the album are the opener Symphonies which shows the artist’s originality and creativity with atmospheric use of string and choral samples, Pump My Pumps has so much energy and a stomping good beat, Wonder has everything, a great drum riff, impressive vocals and the catchiest chorus line, while the concluding Let Go shows Black has the sensitivity for a touching, beautiful, slower number.
All in all, this is an incredibly good first effort. The twelve tracks join together to achieve a highly pleasing coherent whole. Whether he will scale the heights of stardom remains to be seen but this is a very impressive start.