DAN MANGAN RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS ON NEW ALBUM NATURAL LIGHT VIA ARTS & CRAFTS
NEW SINGLE “MELODY” INTRODUCES AN ALBUM FILLED WITH LOVE SONGS FOR A SOCIETY ON THE BRINK
Before a single note of Dan Mangan’s 7th LP Natural Light was recorded he listened through a series of song demos and sincerely considered the title Schminger Schmongwriter. After years of rolling his eyes at the genre, there is poetry in accepting that the two best words to describe him may in fact be “singer” and “songwriter”.
In context, the nod to Harry Nilsson’s landmark album Nilsson Schmilsson is not out of place. There’s a feeling of timelessness to Natural Light – to be released May 16, 2025, via Arts & Crafts – in the curiosity, the wit, and the playfulness in Dan’s voice, through his words, and the vibrancy of the music. The analog patina and subtle reminders that this tender, funny and devastating work was made by humans together in a room. Mangan’s newest offering bears the the poise of a modern classic, seeded by Dan’s singular lyricism and forged unexpectedly by four best buds over six days in a cabin in the woods.
PHOTO CREDIT: ZACHARY VAGUE
Today, Dan Mangan shares the first glimpse of Natural Light with the single “Melody,” a gentle, rousing, irrepressible tune that chimes with slide guitar, and flourishes with saxophone and clarinet. Through a musical mindframe, “Melody” is a dedication to the fleeting moments of beauty that compel life, as Dan sings: ‘I should be over it now / but I ain’t over it now.’
Natural Light is an album filled with love songs about a society on the brink of collapse. No longer the hopeful young upstart or a stubborn folk-punk, Dan Mangan emerges as a voice to articulate our troubled times with tenderness and humour. Love songs about a planet on the brink of collapse. Campfire songs for a world on fire.
“Contentment is a slippery fish, and the harder we squeeze it, the quicker it’s gone,” says Mangan. “‘Melody’ is about needing affirmation from something over which you have no control. It’s about the grief of having something special and then losing it – about getting the benefit of the doubt, and then no longer getting the benefit of the doubt. It’s about love, or society, or the music industry, or a brief moment above par on the existential rollercoaster.”
There is a sense of returning throughout Natural Light. A return to folk music’s classic underpinnings of political resistance. A return to writing “song songs” with nothing but a notebook and an acoustic guitar. Mangan has experimented rigorously with his sound over the years, but resting in his roots may be where he operates most effortlessly.
Tour Dates
March 6 – Casselberry, Florida – Casselberry Arts Center
March 7 – Jacksonville, Florida – Blue Jay Listening Room
March 8 – St-Augustine, Florida – Spinster Abbott’s
March 9 – Gainesville, Florida – Gainesville Fine Arts Association
PRE-ORDER & PRE-SAVE NATURAL LIGHT HERE
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