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Album Details

• Artist: Yesan Damen
• Album: The Never Beginning Story
• Label: New Wine Records
• Year of Release: 2006
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: andyfromjersey on 2007-02-20

The Never Beginning Story is the debut LP from Yesan Damen. The sticker on the case of this CD recommends it if you like Pedro the Lion, Sufjan Stevens, and Belle and Sebastian, but I’d be hard pressed to make a real comparison to any of these acts. The music itself, however, is a very listenable, quiet but by no means calm pop rock with nicely varied instrumentation. Tracks like “Perfect [Or So It Seems]” and “The Summer Breeze,” when paired with songs like “Last Place” and “Deception at its Best” demonstrate the CD’s mix of light, easygoing variety. My only real complaint with this is record is that at times it is somewhat bland. Individual songs are never bad, but I sometimes find myself thinking that people have done much more with much less. And following that reasoning, my next question is “What happened here?” Front man and lead songwriter Daniel Kwak gets points for the attempt, but execution is less than perfect. Sometimes, it seems that all that’s necessary is a different voice here and there; Kwak’s own deep, yet wispy voice is good for some songs, but all wrong for others. Even more troublesome is the fact that sometimes I got the impression he just wasn’t trying very hard. While there is a nice amount of variety in a literal sense, the sentiment does not translate into action, and after awhile, I am taken back to one ill spent evening last summer where I sat (god help me) around a bonfire, listening to my fellow high schoolers strum guitars and fail to sing. The feeling here remains the same. Not that this should deter you from a pleasant, poppy experience. There's nothing really wrong with this album, except that it's not marketed terribly well. Yesan Damen is a good band, even if they aren’t nearly as adventurous as New Wine Records would have us believe. Let’s see what their next effort has to offer.

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