Taken from his current album, his sixth to date, The Peach Orchard Field, “Oh Me Oh My” is the perfect proof that there are still plenty of paths to explore within the broad rock and roll landscape. Yes, it is a well-established genre and many of its tenets and traditions seem anchored firmly to listener expectation, but Danny Django still finds alternate routes through it, routes that astutely blend the familiar with the fresh.
There is something faintly Dylan-esque to the looseness of the delivery, something that echoes the excitement of that goes electric moment. That said, the sound is grounded in clever forward-thinking sonics as much as it is in nostalgic reverie. There is a raw, raggle-taggle feel building a bridge between the roar, unburdened freedom and feel-over-finesse of garage rock, and some smarter, more contemporary musical moves, resulting in Django finding his way to that perfect, hard-to-find sweet spot between looseness and focus.
And, having had a quick listen to the rest of the album, it is safe to say that he runs the gamut of almost all sounds and styles, at least all those that matter – folk, soul, indie, psych, rock…and a few he seems to have invented along the way – it’s all there. And the reason I say this is to point out that, unlike many artists who get stuck in a signature sound or feel beholden to deliver what they think the buyer wants, if “Oh Me Oh My” doesn’t do it for you (although I can’t see why it wouldn’t), get the album, there will be something different along right away, and again after that…and that…well, you get the picture.
Eclecticism isn’t the same as randomness, and here there truly is something for everyone, well, everyone with a discerning taste in music, a sense of sonic adventure, and a hunger for the new and exciting, at least.
