Photo Credit : Zachary Vague
Last month, Dan Mangan announced his new record, Natural Light, an album filled with love songs about a society on the brink of collapse. First introduced by the rousing, irrepressible single “Melody,” Natural Light is Mangan’s return to folk music’s classic underpinnings of political resistance, and songs founded on building connection. No longer the hopeful young upstart or a stubborn folk-punk, Mangan’s familiar voice emerges 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.
Now Mangan shares “Cut The Brakes,” the second glimpse of Natural Light – a wry yet gently windswept tune that “attempts a brief history of human evolution,” says Mangan. “We came from plants in the water. We made up stories, built monuments, had a lot of sex, and nobody is driving the bus.”
Over a driving folk rhythm, with chiming guitars and morning-light production hues, “Cut The Brakes” paints a contrasted picture of calmness amidst chaos, a sort of gentle melody before the storm: ‘Oh, someone cut the brakes while we were sleeping / Someone left the stove on again / Oh, what’s the point of all this bob ‘n weave’n’? / Someone ate the last Oreo.’
