Search - Dan Black :: Un

Great

oraden | 08/23/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"great album, it took a couple of weeks before i had to take a break from listening the full album daily."

Seems like I stand pretty much unseen.

Jason Stein | San Diego, CA United States | 04/10/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Dan Black is the type of artist that's a travesty to ignore, but that's what's happening here in the U.S. I saw the video for "Symphonies" and checked out the other song samples, liked what I heard, bought the album. This is a great debut. In reading about Dan Black I see that he has been around for the past ten years in various forms, but this is his first solo outing.



"Un" is pop with character. Catchy melodies, but not overly produced and slick like much of today's popular music. Mr. Black finds obscure sampling sources--take "Symphonies" with its sample of John Carpenter's "Starman" end titles theme. Brilliant. But this is no one hit wonder. Black offers up an entire album of great pop songs like "U+Me=", "Alone", "Yours", "Pump My Pumps", "Wonder", "Cigarette Pack", "Life Slash Dreams" and the bonus track "Karate Kid". That's the most hits I've heard on a debut in a very long time.



The other tracks, mostly ballads, are good, but not quite great like "Ecstasy", "Cocoon" and "Let Go". My least favorite track is "I Love Life".



If you haven't heard of this guy, or if you've only seen "Symphonies", you really should check this out. One of my top new artists of 2010 to be sure. Here's hoping Black will continue to make interesting pop music in the near future.



Four stars due to some weaker moments, but overall a great listen."

Impressive Self-Produced Debut

H. Alexander | SF, CA | 04/04/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"from myBlog , which cdnow won't let me post the link to here... but the link is in my profile. (check it out!)



...In Dan Black's debut album "UN", you hear an extremely talented guy trying -- and succeeding at producing his very own finely tuned Pop album with Hip Hop influences. And he does it all by himself. Without the benefit of having Timbaland or Kanye West producing tracks for him, he does a really impressive job of making songs that sound like they were produced by Timbaland or Kanye. This kid obviously has his ear to Pop radio, and every track (literally) is catchy enough to compete in that format easily. "U + Me" and "Alone" could potentially be big hits on the charts. If there's one problem with this debut, it's Black's voice. It's paper thin and at times a little whiny, a little more vocal control or even playing with different melodies, phrasing or just the attitude would have greatly benefited the album, especially some of the slower songs like the gorgeous "Cocoon" or "Life Slash Dreams". However this is his debut album, and based on what he's been able to accomplish here the future looks really good for him, and hopefully he grows leaps and bounds from here."