A Fleet Too Large?

Since his audio senior thesis for Rutgers in 1995, Daniel Smith has been crafting oddly charming music under various permutations of the Danielson moniker (e.g., Danielson Famile, Danielson Family, Brother Danielson). For his latest offering, Ships, Smith recruited about 35 guest performers (friends and family), and the resulting album is a sprawling sonic mélange. Through typically colorful and incomprehensible lyrics, Smith explores the apropos theme of nautical camaraderie.

By its very nature a dense and eclectic record, Ships is not the most readily accessible in the Danielson catalog; it is replete with prog-rock elements that some may find obnoxious: many songs are composed of disparate fragments, and the frequent, abrupt changes in tempo, instrumentation, and volume are alternately inspiring and disorienting. Listeners unfamiliar with the Smith’s work should be warned that he has a tendency to jump between sparse, ecstatic pop and massive, dark avant-garde—often within the same track.

As always, the vocals may be an obstacle for initiates; although not nearly as—unorthdox—as Geddy Lee’s androgynous wailings, many fans would admit that Daniel Smith’s vocalizations are an acquired taste. Ships is no exception; however, on several tracks, Smith’s voice sounds eerily similar to the falsetto crooning of Grant Lee Phillips: parts of "Bloodbook on the Halfshell" and “Did I Step on Your Trumpet” sound as if they could have been culled from the Fuzzy or Mighty Joe Moon sessions.

Although initially demanding, listeners who persevere through repeated plays will undoubtedly be rewarded.