album of the week: 7.3

Dan Sartain Lives

One Little Indian Records (2010)

why you'll love it - no one is more authentic than Dan Sartain

why you'll hate it - repetitive, nothing compared to past material.

Any fan of Dan Sartain has to crack at least a smirk at the title Dan Sartain Lives. After a four year absence from the studio, I was convinced we'd never hear from the guy again. This is the third Dan Sartain… titled album but the first that doesn't depict his death on the cover. So this really feels like something big might happen. Perhaps a new side to the Alabama rock and roller?

Sadly, not the case. Join Dan Sartain was one of my favorite albums of 2006. Perhaps it was the Swami Records bump, but his sound was richer and worthy of Speedo's ever present exaggerated praise included in the sleeve. Lives feels flat, and despite Sartain's swagger not backing down, the simplicity of his songs really show in an ugly way here.

A lot of these songs sound good, and some are still quite fun in their simplicity ("Doin' Anything I Say" and "Atheist Funeral" come to mind), but too many don't distract from how repetitive the lyrics tend to be.

These songs are all about 2-3 minutes, and a few of them repeat the song title in the lyrics upwards of ten times! Yes, I counted. I lot of these songs sound like demos. I don't mean the quality; the songwriting has gaps that could have been filled with better stuff than just the same catch phrase over and over again.

It's pains me to say this isn't a very good album, because Dan Sartain is a musician I rarely hesitate to recommend to anyone, even factoring this record into the sum. He's pure honest rock and roll. But this collection of songs to not do him justice, and are certainly not worth the four year wait. He's done much better than this, and hopefully will have the chance to do better in the future. So go see him on tour if you can, and buy a copy of Join or something. He deserves another shot.