Good things to come out of Canada? That’s a question that took me a moment or ten to answer. There’s Holly Cole, of course, and the Crash Test Dummies. Oh, and probably Dan Kosub. Only he doesn’t really sound Canadian being altogether more mainstream, midrange American in his stylistic approach.
That’s not really a bad thing either as Dan Kosub walks with confidence through the six songs that make up his mini album “Jacob’s Island”. He has the touch of a commercial songwriter with the eloquent construction of “Til I’m There” providing more than enough evidence of that. “Aurelia”, though more of a rock song, is still on the right side of radio friendliness while “Fifteen Summers”, in contrast, is possessed of a convincing sentimentality. Curiously, given that our Mr Kosub has managed to establish himself as a serious songwriter with the previous songs, he slips and falls straight into David Foster style hack territory with both “Abused” and “In Front Of The World”.
Anyway, good songwriting is good songwriting and Dan Kosub does well enough here to merit your attention.