Search - Dan Bryk :: Lovers Leap

K-kool!

massromantic | Vancouver | 12/07/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is real real good. I don't think that many people have heard this record, and that's a shame because he's the best new singer-songwriter I've heard this year. This sort of falls into the default of new wave power pop cause the hooks are distractingly strong and his talented band plays straight-ahead in that well-constructed Elton Costello sixties-meets-seventies way. Byrk's songs are deceptively simple at first listen, but when he plays piano (which is about half the time) you can hear him dropping some amateurishly ambitious jazz voicings. The lyrics are the finest I've heard in a while, slyly funny and heartbreakingly honest love/hate notes that really strike a chord. It's pretty direct, me and you stuff, not a lot of poetry and the storytelling is definitely in the details, but it's pretty incisive and modern, nowhere as sappy as the 70's stuff he probably likes (his self-pity isn't too cloying and his anger is usually self-directed, more Lou Reed/Jonathan Richman than Dean Friedman/James Taylor). He's rough around the edges as a singer--he's not going to win an American Music Award any time soon--but neither was Dylan or Cohen or Fagen or Newman (Randy or Colin, take your pick) all major dudes who clearly influence Byrk's singing and writing. Byrk's voice cracks a fair bit (think Malkmus or Neil Young) but his melodies go all over the damn place and he's gonna follow 'em when they do. There's no one style and there's nothing totally groundbreaking, but you seldom hear so many influences piled up into a bunch of wonderfully catchy songs you've clearly never heard before. A minor complaint is you don't hear enough of sweet and tasty main guitarist Kurt Swinghamer, especially because Bryk overplays and no-one stops him. Adam Schlesinger signed Byrk to his label and he should produce his next one (and tie one of his hands behind his back)."

Blinding debut from Bryk

honeylover | 10/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lovers Leap is a very interesting melange of The Eels, Randy Newman, The Flaming Lips and Jonathan Richman. Superb songwriting and arrangements and a band with searing guitars and Newmanesque pianos"

Masculine powerpop nympho

FizzWiz | Pittsburgh, PA | 04/29/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"With not many instruments, and some crazy thoughs thrown together comes this album. Bryk starts us off with his past. I don't even know who the hell Mark Turmell is, but I guess I do now after hearing that song. Fingers is a great piano ballad implying surviving lonliness by playing the piano and doing other activities. She Doesn't Mean A Thing To Me Tonight has a funky pop melody that reminds one of Fountains of Wayne with less production. I do not like his vocals on this one when he's stretching his voice. I Love You Goodbye is a nice smooth song of saying it's time to move on. BBW (Chunky Girl) is a poppy marching band type of song. Sounds kind of corny, but I don't think it's corny at all. It's a cute sounding song with a great melody and lyrics. Spadina Expressway is in Canada. He's creating imagery with a highway.



In Big Thinks Like This, he "talk sings" quite a bit. It's okay, and goes well with the tune, but doesn't spark my interest.



The bonus song starts off like a harp and turns into a happyish tune. It's one of my faves off the album about him submitting his work to record companies and such.



The rest of the songs deal more with his lonliness or about him not wanting or glad to be leaving significant others.



The only thing I don't like about this album is that sometims he likes to whine. You think he whines because it goes well enough with the song, but sometimes you wonder if it's because he doesn't have vocals for those certain portions of songs otherwise. I think FOW should try some kind of collaboration with Bryk, now that'd be interesting!"