Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards – Blindspot (2013)

Some singers just have a voice that you'll listen to, hypnotised, no matter what they're singing. English singer-songwriter Dan Michaelson definitely has one of these voices. He has a deep baritone that has some warm and raspy comfort in it. I think I first heard this album when I was going through the best albums lists of 2013 by Rough Trade or Piccadilly Records. The first dark and melancholic notes already hit me hard and by the time his voice creeped in, I was sold. That was probably one of those moments when I just walked straight into the nearest record shop to buy this album. Ever since, this has been one of my go-to albums for those moments after work when I just want to lay down on the sofa really tired and just want to hear something calming and comforting. Getting older, I find myself needing albums like this more and more.



Most of the instrumentations on the album come from echoey electric guitars, piano and cello. The instruments don't really take the attention though, everything is reserved for Michaelson's amazing voice.

I saw the band live at The Lexington here in London. It's a perfect small and intimate venue for a concert like this. Michaelson's voice was just as amazing live and I remember shivers running up my spine throughout most of the show. His stage presence also made an impression of a nice guy, which makes his music even more likeable. There isn't a lot of variation in the different songs on this album. Pretty much all of the songs follow the same pattern, but then again, anything else would just break the mood of the album. The thing that I absolutely love about this album is that you can listen to the whole thing while relaxing on the sofa and not once is your hypnotic trance interrupted.

When music videos are made well, they give more insight to the artist in question. The music video for Sheets is one of those videos. It mainly just features Dan Michaelson alone in a row boat without oars in the middle of a lake. He's looking straight into the camera and sings or just stares. It makes the music that we hear really intimate and personal. It also shows the kind of situation where you would want to listen to this music. I bet his music would work brilliantly listened to by good headphones while wondering alone in the nature. Having grown up in Finland, I sometimes long for walks alone in a forest and I feel like Dan Michaelson's music would be a great soundtrack for solitude forest walks.

If I have to open up to someone who doesn't like melancholic music why I like this album, I probably couldn't. I find this difficult in any case, but especially with this album, I feel like the greatness of it, is the amazing comforting feeling inside of me when I listen to this music. This music, even if it is very sad and sometimes even crushing, gives me a sense that a lot of things are beautiful in this world.

Listen to the album on Spotify.