Staring bright and bubbly with "Truly Julie" and bringing to mind Squeeze with its sound, this track sets the tone for the entire CD. And I do mean the entire CD. Although there are changes in instrumentation between songs, there isn’t enough variation in light and shade throughout to make the CD interesting enough when taken as a whole. Even when Dan attempts some darker lyrics in "Mary Jean Won’t Disappear", which is about a young girl’s loss of her mother, the song rolls along with a bouncing upbeat rhythm and cloyingly sugar-sweet harmonies at odds with the subject matter.
There’s something distinctly second-hand about the sound and the writing – a bit of Squeeze here; a touch of Jellyfish there. All the reference points within the music appear to have had a Beatles quality to them but Dan doesn’t seem to have gone to the original source, or done a good enough job to blend and update the elements into the 21st Century. The worst culprit is "You Might Have Made the Sun". This could be mistaken for Oasis’ - the ultimate Beatles cover band - Royle Family TV theme, "Half the World Away", and all that’s missing from the comparison is Ricky Tomlinson sitting and farting in the corner.
Ultimately this CD is lightweight. The songs are pretty enough, but don’t have any real substance. With the overall tone of the CD being so upbeat, this is the musical equivalent of a light box, a sunshine substitute, but we all know that there’s nothing like the real thing.
Eleven Shades? Dan should buy himself a bigger pallet.
Available from CD Baby.