A dark moody cityscape. Tales of hookers, junkies and thieves. Emos beware.

14 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Americana, FOLK: Urban Folk



Details:
"Danny Mack: a revered and vital figure on the Western Canadian music scene for more than three decades performs solo or with bands - the Hydro Electric Street Car, Fireweed, and Alberta Crude among others.

Without a trite moment among its eleven cuts, We All Fall Down adds a significant chapter to his canon. Mack has crafted a release of compelling lyrical depth and imagery simultaneously troubling and refreshing, stark and detailed. The title track is central to the album's themes of hunger, redemption, respect, and hope. Here he uses metaphors of wolves and vultures to describe those who are out to take advantage of others.

Other tracks offer similar dark atmospheres. Dreamland, with its refrain of "think what life could be if..." is told from a junkie's perspective and Buffalo Hunter tells of an urban man's struggle with "cheap rice wine" and the pain of earlier times. Live And Die In Fear effectively captures the dashing of dreams and smashing of false securities and Bobby's On The Run has a Darkness-era Springsteen spirit. Mack's lyrics are not concise but neither are they superfluous.

The most startling aspect of this album, through all the blood, hardship, and degradation, Mack's restrained voice and economical delivery is positively the opposite of, yet ideally suited for, the largely ugly and depressing topics. His voice has a more natural country blues quality than John Hiatt; whereas Hiatt sometimes seems to be singing to show that he can, Mack just sings because he must. And that may be the best reason to seek out We All Fall Down. "
DONALD TEPLYSKE, PENGUIN EGGS
(CANADA'S FOLK, ROOTS AND WORLD MUSIC MAGAZINE)