Vancouver native Dan Mangan’s vocals on this LP will charm the pants
off any summer road-tripper, via beautifully sung folk pop melodies,
sometimes about coffee, sometimes about love. Mangan’s smart,
soul-bearing album kicks off with “Road Regrets,” a song he wrote in
2007 while driving from El Paso to Austin, drinking gas-station coffee
and regretting it all the way. Second track “Robots” is a sincerely
sung silly tune that proves “robots need love too.” Mangan wrote the
Nice, Nice, Very Nice tunes between 2005 and 2008, and it shows;
this is a thoughtful release that will grow on you, listen after
listen, all summer long.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2009.