Danielson - Ships

Or how I learned to stop worrying about unemployment and learn to love the yelp.

Daniel Smith has never made an album that I've found especially entertaining, or even worthy of a second listen. Considering this, Ships is the most dramatic turn i've seen an artist make since Britney Spears with Toxic! We can only hope he does not get knocked up twice in the future, and marry a back up dancer.

The album opens up with an Smiths voice eerie and isolated, "Before I turn upon a new, there stood still a ship." The opening verse sets stage for the most vivid and provoked imagery I have received from an album in quite a long time. The whole tone of the album seems like it was written for a musical, with a main character pondering and fighting before large outbursts of the Danielson Famile emerge, like an elementary school chorus mimmicking him.

The arrangements are large and grandiose, yet very chaotic. Somehow, on this album, Daniel Smith manages to weld all the sounds together in a remarkably cohesive fashion. Wind instruments, banjos, brass all work independently and build up slowly in the songs before moments of true bliss where they all come together in harmony. "Did I Step On Your Trumpet" is perhaps the most fun of the year. "Cast It At The Setting Sail" starts off with Smith enticing the rest of the band to come in yelping "Come on!". This is likely the albums most accessible song, where his voice is not so all over the place and animal collective-esque. There is a high chance this album is hit or miss, but its definitely one to say you've heard. Check out "Cast It At The Setting Sail" and tell me what you think in the comments section

Cast It At The Setting Sail - http://www.bigupload.com/d=FC875A16
-Ben Magnuson