Dan Black – Symphonies

Dan Black - Symphonies

To start with, I can’t place Dan Black’s voice; I thought “I’ve heard this voice before, it’s whiney in a way, but not annoying”. I thought I was just associating it with an artist I hadn’t heard in ages and was tempted to leave it at that.

Turns out, after a bit of digging, that Black sang for The Servant, and all became clear.

He seems to have gone in a bit of a different direction with this solo release, while the vocal and lyrical style remains much the same, Symphonies has a more R&B/Hip-Hop vibe, but the fact that the drum loop is sampled from Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ could well be the cause of that. Then again, Black himself says on his Myspace that he’s a Jay-Z fan, so fair dos.

The lyrics aren’t terribly deep, or even well thought out, with lines like “Gimme more than the life I see/ score adds up, angels play/let my loneliness get blown away”, Black isn’t doing anything amazing but they fit the song well.

Another problem is that the chorus isn’t even hooky, it’s just repetitive and somewhat irritating, and while the beat is top notch, it’s ultimately from another song.

The track is essentially good background noise, the lyrics seem to be there just to provide more weight and rhythm and by using a recognisable sample Black has ensured that the track will be just as easy to dance to as Rihanna’s original.

If you’re after something to pad out a party mix tape or you fancy hearing ‘Umbrella’ with different words, then this single could well be for you, otherwise, chances are there’s better things out there for you to listen to.

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