Review Summary: Strange, childish, silly. A near masterpiece.
There comes a time (or multiple times) in every music lover's life when an artist comes along and changes what you believe encompasses "good" music. During my adolescent years when pop-punk was the king genre in my personal realm, Say Anything's
...Is A Real Boy came along and started me on the path of digging a little deeper into music, teaching me that it wasn't all about catchy riffs and simple hooks. I loved the creativity, anthemic song structures, and metaphoric lyrics. Then came
OK Computer. As it has for many others, it showed me the musicianship and artistry that exists in the music world. For a while I felt that every band should take their work this seriously and create meaningful songs like Radiohead strived to do. And then I stumbled upon Danielson.
The band's ringleader, Daniel Smith, has made it his life's work to spread his art of musical silliness. Beginning in 1993, Smith gathered his whole family together to perform the album
A Prayer For Every Hour which he had written for his final thesis at Rutgers University (the performance even included his youngest brother who wasn't even a teenager yet on drums). The album was 24 tracks of his version of prayer in song form, and I assure you it is nothing like you have ever heard. Daniel received an 'A', most likely because the professor was scared of being damned to hell.
Danielson has continued along the zaney path of putting out albums that could best be described as "Raffi on acid". Songs have ranged from over-the-top childish to downright frightening (listen to 'Body English' if you don't believe me). But
Ships is where Danielson has truly honed their craft. Featuring contributions from many well-respected artists such as Sufjan Stevens (who actually got his career started with the help of Daniel), Deerhoof, members of Sareena Maneesh, and Why?, this album takes everything they have done in the past and completely perfects that sound on a much more grand level.
Each song has a grand epic feel while still keeping an overal pop aesthetic. And the music is so ambitious that multiple listens are an absolute requirement. The instrumentation is beautifully orchestrated and the production is perfect. With over 20 musicians lending a hand, things can start to move toward being chaotic but Smith's unique musical vision and leadership ensures it never quite gets there. However, the key element to Danielson's originality and silliness is also most likely the deciding factor of whether you will love this or hate it. Smith's Vocals. To some they might be unbearably highpitched (think the mouse Fievel from the American Tail movies or any other singing mouse from cartoons). But Smith actually uses it as a tool to build tension, often times singing an octave higher with each lyrical passage until the listener is left thinking he couldn't possibly take the song to a higher level. This technique is masterfully used on 'Cast It At the Setting Sail' as well as 'Bloodbook On The Halfshell' and 'Two Sitting Ducks'. 'Did I Step On Your Trumpet' is the easy stand-out catchy track on the album. Sounding like a hybrid of Modest Mouse's road trip vibe from
Lonesome Crowned West and Sufjan Steven's horn ensemble and use of female backing vocals, the song uses simple child-like problems to convey a sense of alienation and the inability to keep ones peers pleased except through shallow or insincere means.
Ships is much more serious and "professional" sounding than Danielson's previous works (which some would argue that it loses the charm of those albums), but Daniel is still a child at heart, and themes from his childhood still make appearances. 'Kids Are Pushing Kids' is a trip down memory lane and 'Two Sitting Ducks' tells the tale of a child growing up and leaving his parents, complete with xylophones and chirping recorders. Plus, when performing these songs live, he dresses up as an apple tree and his female backup singers dress up as nurses. So nothing is ever going to get too serious.
After all this talk about silliness and childishness, it might be easy to write Danielson off as just stupid nonsense. But this isn't Dr. Seuss stuff - Daniel conveys his message poetically and masterfully, which rescues the songs from coming across as childish and instead makes them beautifully nostalgic.
