Jacob Bellens
Album: The Daisy Age
Label: Wind Some Lose Some
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.jacobbellens.com

Danish singer-songwriter Jacob has been a prolific writer of songs for well over a decade, many of which he's released hitherto only on albums where he's collaborated with other Danish musicians, although other artists from his home country have recorded his songs over the years.

It's hard to believe that The Daisy Age represents Jacob's debut solo record, for it's a confident, if quite frustratingly quirkily scored collection whose level of musical invention rather exceeds the expectations of Jacob's lyrics, perceptive though they may prove on occasion.

The attention-seeking nature of the consciously knowing arrangements rather distracts, albeit often in a pleasing and/or challenging way; for instance, opening song Heart Of Africa blows in like a wilful breeze through the windmills of your mind, wafting the feel of such heady late-60s orchestrally-textured adventures, in the landscape of which Jacob's slightly cultured vocal seems strangely in keeping. Comedy Club has a backing that draws on both carnival-pop and kraftwerk-electronica, the latter styling recurring later on Jamboree; Only For The Lonely takes on an unconvincing early-60s sax-soaked doo-wop groove. I must admit I find Jacob's vocal delivery a touch monotonous on numbers like Champion Sounds, where the constant repetitive riffing only adds to the basic tedium of the melody. Eight Arms To Hold You, though sparely textured, is far more satisfying on all counts, and probably the disc's most repeatable number.

Too many of the others that follow are just plain dull, even pedestrian in their execution and outlook alike. As far as Jacob's lyrics are concerned, I'm not sure I entirely get the point of his musings, romantically insightful though they may be in their own limited way. I'm sorry, but the jury's very much out still on this one.

David Kidman