The Simplicity and softness that is Dan Mangans New album “Natural Light”

Posted on by

Dan Mangan is truly a timeless veteran when it comes to music he has been doing this for over almost 20 years. Fun fact if you do listen to Evolution 1079 you have probably heard Dan a few times that’s actually how i got into his music over the summer. With his newest album release “Natural Light”, Dan steps back into simplicity with this new album. The Album was actually recorded in a cabin in six days with Mangan and friends in Ontario. The Vancouver based singer songwriter released “Melody” as a single to promote the new album. Most of the songs on this album were previous throw-aways that Mangan hadn’t considered good enough in the past, but at this point in his career he wanted to come back to them and see if he could create anything special with these scraps. 

 

This album follows a very calm and grounded style. Acoustic guitars and soft vocals make you feel safe in the music. The first half of the album with songs like “ It might be raining”, and “ I hated love songs” shows Mangan kind of being over it all and not giving up but accepting the social fatigue he has in today’s new age world. Being over it all doesnt mean he doesnt have hope for the future though he still has hope for a better future in these early songs. 

 

The second half of the album features songs like “sound the alarm”, and the ending track “hit the wall”. These songs show Managan dealing with burnout, but still trekking on and being a soldier. A key example of that is on the last track with lyrics like “ nobody said this feeling would go on”, and him chanting “on-on-on”, with an unreal guitar solo in the background just makes you want to be a soldier with him. It really fills the listener up with hope. It really is the perfect end to the album and sometimes artists have trouble doing that, Mangan did not. 

 

“Natural Light”, is an album that you can listen to on a late night drive. It is the definition of chill, and that is what makes the album so great. In this new age where everything has to be loud and over produced Managan proves that sometimes simplicity is still king.