Oh Fortune
Dan Mangan hits his musical stride on his third studio album, *Oh Fortune*. Produced by Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Cave Singers, etc.), the lengthily titled opener, “About as Helpful as You Can Be Without Being Any Help at All,” has cascading drones that gradually blossom into a handsome orchestra of lush strings, horns, and woodwinds arranged by Eyvind Kang. (He composed similar arrangements for The Decemberists\' *Crane Wife*.) Over all this, Mangan’s earnest voice sounds like he’s reinventing the sea chantey with an indie slant. “How Darwinian” is similarly ornate, but with more baroque-pop trimmings keeping Mangan’s folk approach to songwriting intact. The skittering electric guitar solos that distort and dance around “Post-War Blues” are rooted in pure ‘90s indie rock. But rather than take a similarly retro direction with his singing, Mangan’s manly baritone rails against the United States’ decade-long occupations in the Middle East. The somber “If I Am Dead” nicely contrasts distant-sounding whistles with Mangan’s upfront presence.
In a few short years, Dan Mangan has gone from globetrotting folk crooner to one of independent music's most promising storytellers. No longer armed with just an acoustic guitar slung across his back, Dan returns in 2011 on the back of critically acclaimed sophomore album Nice, Nice Very Nice, which earned him a Polaris Music Prize shortlist, a spot at Glastonbury and shows with The Walkmen, Decemberists and Okkervil River, to name but a few. Here now, is his dense, ambitious third offering, Oh Fortune, Dan's proper Arts & Crafts debut, slated for release September 27. On it, rich, textured folk explores the genre's boundaries, demonstrating Dan's impressive growth in writing and arranging. Produced by Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Cave Singers) and now flanked with a stellar supporting cast, the new album is bigger and more challenging, though still infused with the signature wit and wisdom that have made Dan such a fan favourite wherever he goes. To be sure, this release marks the arrival of a new voice, with world class charm and a universal appeal. Oh fortune, indeed.
The Canadian troubadour has found himself hitting a stride that his previous albums only hinted at.
With Oh Fortune – the follow up to 2009’s Nice, Nice, Very Nice which largely brought the Canadian singer songwriter to the attention of these shores and gained him a Polaris Prize nomination back home – Dan Mangan reveals a much grander, ambitious, and sonorous undertaking. Building upon the alt-folk foundations of its predecessor, songs like Starts With Them, Ends With Us and Post-War Blues then launch into brass fanfares that grate against rapturous guitars teasingly teetering on the edge of orchestral cacophony.
Dan Mangan’s best song, “Road Regrets”, was an endearingly straightforward bit of melodic folk-rock, rich with the romantically cynical posturing of...