Dan Mangan - Oh Fortune

Bevor Mumford & Sons erneut antreten, um von uns ignoriert zu werden, veröffentlicht Dan Mangan, dessen Stimme teilweise so schön nach Marcus Mumford klingt, ein neues Album, um seinen 3. Platz erfolgreich zu verteidigen. Und dass, obwohl "Sigh No More" und "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" recht zeitnah 2009 veröffentlicht wurden.

Den Überraschungseffekt des neu entdeckten Künstlers kann Dan Mangan nicht mehr für sich beanspruchen, also ruft er das Schicksal um Hilfe an, und dieses scheint ihm hold zu sein. "Oh Fortune" besticht durch vielfältigere, ideen- und abwechslungsreichere Arrangements als sein Vorgänger. Angefangen beim nahezu klassisch orchestrierten Opener "About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All" oder "Starts With Them, Ends With Us", das ganz gemächlich zur akustischen Gitarre beginnt und für dessen Ende scheinbar Einladungen an die Bläser-Sektionen von Beirut und Calexico verschickt wurden. "Post-War Blues" und "Rows Of Houses" zeigen Dan Mangan & Co. in deutlich schnellerer und rockigerer Form als zuvor. Zum erweiterten Repertoire gehören als auch eingestöpselte elektrische Gitarren. Erst der an siebter Stelle postierte Titelsong zeigt uns den Singer/Songwriter, als den wir Mangan mit "Road Regrets" kennen und schätzen lernen durften. Gegen Ende werden auch ruhigere, folkigere Momente ausgekostet ("Leaves, Trees, Forest", "Jeopardy") und zeigen, dass sich Dan Mangan nicht auf die Hilfe des Schicksal verlassen muss, um erneut eine gute Rolle bei unserer Endabrechnung spielen zu können.

This is not a record that can be pigeonholed as the work of a singer-songwriter or folkie; it’s brimming with full-on pop ambition and if Mangan had kept such lofty musical aspirations in check before, he’s certainly enjoying the artistic freedom that success engenders now.

But for all of that, as soon as the vocals come in it’s unmistakably a Dan Mangan record. Not having the most elastic voice becomes an pro rather than a con as it remains warm and comforting like a woollen blanket, delivering poignant and poetic lyrics that; another Mangan trademark still intact, if perhaps darker in tone this time out. And it’s Mangan’s voice and the words it carries that act as a sturdy, reliable centre amidst the swirling sonic proceedings; it’s as if between Very Nice and Fortune, Mangan was transplanted from the setting of a comfortable stool in his local into… well, it’s hard to say, exactly. The atmosphere of Fortune is consistent but difficult to pin down, also certainly part of the overarching strategy to head off preconceptions and expectations and forces the listener to consider the record on its own merits rather than what they figured a new Dan Mangan record would sound like.

It’s no small thing to shift gears or change lanes immediately after a breakthrough record; the temptation to stick to what worked – at least for the follow-up – must be immense, particularly when what worked was a time-tested, meat-and-potatoes sort of approach. So Mangan should be praised for going as conceptually far afield as he has on Oh Fortune without abandoning his core strengths and lauded for making it work so well. If it wasn’t clear from any of the above, Oh Fortune is an excellent record, expansive in scope yet efficiently delivered and both musically and lyrically rich. No, there’s nothing as immediate as “Robots” but in lieu of that degree of immediacy, you get songs that continue to reveal themselves over repeated listens. Oh Fortune confirms Mangan as one of this country’s best new songwriters and, as a bonus, forces those who’d seek to dismiss him as too conventional to find a new line of criticism. Maybe that he’s too tall. Because he’s pretty tall.
(chromewaves.net)