Dan Mangan’s 2009 album Nice, Nice, Very Nice is exactly the kind of mellow acoustic folk to provide the backing track to midterm studying—or any kind of mid-semester writing that needs to be finished before the ever looming deadline. Mangan’s raspy vocals and folksy guitar weave stories of melancholy and travel in tracks like “Road Regrets” and “Tina’s Glorious Comeback.”
While by no means a simple album, the sing-along quality in Mangan’s lyrics are showcased in “Robots” and “Sold,” with the latter also being one of the more rousing songs on the album. Mangan is at his best when he weaves in his talent for storytelling. Whether in the heartbreaking “Baskets” or the spite filled “Some People,” he demonstrates his ability to crank out catchy folk tunes.
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