To my mind, Dan Black has always gone under the radar and not received the level of appreciation his creative artistry deserves. It’s a difficult balance to achieve if you’re inclined towards showing signs of experiencing visiobibliophobia and not so fond of being seen through the gaze of the digital and social media microscopes. At least this is the sense of feeling that leaped out at me when listening through Dan’s newly released sophomore album “Do Not Revenge”, that has been 6 years in its making. There are hints of this in some of the lyrics but best noted in the track “Headphones” which I have already gone some way to explain in a previous review.
There are two collaborations on “Do Not Revenge” one featuring Kelis who Dan has worked with in the past and another on, “We Drift On”, pairing up with Imogen Heap. The good thing is, they both fit well into the sonic arrangement of the album and don’t feel as they have been placed there to score hype points. I actually think “Do Not Revenge” is quite good and I wouldn’t hesitate to throw this on for a spin over and above much of what makes up the current UK Official Top 40 Album Chart. Circling me right back to the origins of why I got into music blogging in the first place.
Another of the album highlights is the track which Dan has just unleashed a video for, “Wash Away”. I guess the best explanation of this one is Dan waking up to the fact that he’s become drained by gadgetry and a living a life that has effectively been entangled in tech to the point of over-saturation. The life lesson here is, moderation in all things mostly works out for the better good. Even so, it’s given Dan Black plenty to draw upon for this album and the opportunity to reawaken by stamping out some funky moves to a happy dance in this supporting visualizer from “Do Not Revenge”.