Staff Reviews

Dan Michaelson - Sudden Fiction

Review by Aaron Lavery

Dan Michaelson has come to the understanding that although it’s nice to dress that voice with all manner of different instruments, the most impressive thing he can do is wrap his rich, slow rumbling croon around as many languid syllables as possible. »

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super limited to 50 copies. as you'd expect with dm there's a lot of care and attention gone into making this record. stickered on the front, screen printed and stamped on the back and it also contains a screen printed insert. inspired by time spent in marfa, texas between 2010 and 2011, sudden fiction is the third album from dan michaelson since leaving his previous band absentee. initially conceived as a reaction to the baron, beautiful and widescreen landscape of texas, sudden fiction continues to strip back and economise on the sound produced from 2010s rough trade album of the year shakes. the title sudden fiction borrows from a genre who's writing focus's on suggesting as comprehensive a narrative as possible within the fewest amount of words, and many of these songs took a line from a book as a spring board into marrying these two ideas.... the sparse landscape of rural texas and the economic writing style pioneered by raymond carver and lydia davis amongst others. after returning from marfa in 2011, dan embarked on tours with i am kloot, phosphorescent and drive by truckers before recording the album this summer. using a stripped back palette of piano, guitar and pedal steel, the only addition to complete the sudden fiction sessions was a solo cello, a loving nod to lee hazelwood's cowboy in sweden. recorded, produced and mixed by dan, sudden fiction is a delicate and minimal reflection, full of knocks, creaks, scrapes and footsteps, held together by a broken baritone.
description from www.roughtrade.com