• Artist: David Karsten Daniels
• Album: Sharp Teeth
• Label: Fat Cat
• Release: 2007
• Links: Official Site

David Karsten Daniels is a songwriter who resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Sharp Teeth is his fourth full length release and first for Fat Cat Records. When Sharp Teeth landed in my mailbox, I took a look at the album cover and had a good laugh. Daniels’ publicist urged me not to be put off by the artwork and I’m glad that I took his advice. Death is certainly a theme on the album, although it isn’t as explicit as the artwork suggests.

The first three songs on Sharp Teeth represent an exemplary song cycle. “The Dream Before The Ring That Woke Me” opens the disc quietly before bursting into a chorus of beautiful repetition. The end of “Scripts” offers up an entrancing waltz while “American Pastime,” the album’s most accessible track, brings Pavement-esque indie rock to mind. On “The Beast” and several other tracks, I am reminded of Will Oldham. “The Beast” is one of the only songs on the album that I have a problem with. It is too plodding, something that occasionally bothers me about Oldham’s music as well.

Sharp Teeth contains two elegant instrumentals (”Sharp Teeth I,” “Sharp Teeth II”) that serve as precursors for two of the album’s most cathartic moments (”Minnows,” “We Go Right On”). “Minnows” builds endlessly and rocks furiously. It is one of Sharp Teeth’s biggest accomplishments. The release in “Minnows” isn’t as tension-filled, but it is a convincing closer.

I’m not sure how to explain it, but Sharp Teeth is familiar and unique all at once. The arrangements on some of these songs, “The Dream” and “Scripts” most notably, are just sublime. There are one or two bland tracks, but most of this is golden. Sharp Teeth is the first big surprise of 2007.

(1/13/07)

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