It has been three long years since 26-year-old Daniel Merriweather swapped the streets of Melbourne and his native Australia for the cosmopolitan bustle of the commercial, financial, and cultural centre of NYC; Manhattan. The road to the release of his debut album 'Love & War' however, stretches back even further, across continents, decades, relationships, moods and struggles.
A few of you may know Daniel as the emotive voice on Mark Ronson's cover of The Smiths ‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’ or Wiley's recent 'Cash in My Pocket'. He is however, anything but a set of rent-a-pipes and Daniel’s debut album 'Love & War’, produced by Mark Ronson and featuring the Daps Kings among other guests, will rapidly tear up any pre-conceived ideas of what and who Daniel Merriweather is, as will five minutes in his company. He has wolverine like tenacity and possesses a sense of humour and self awareness, articulateness and worldliness that belies his tender years.
In ‘Love & War’, Daniel has shaped a record informed by the juxtaposition of the two cultural metropolises he calls 'home' which is both complicated and equally care free without ever being schizophrenic. Here shiny pop production and the temptation to make a slick and smooth contemporary neo-soul record have been wavered in favour of space, stark emotional intimacy, sonic expansion and crackling introspection. The results are extraordinary; an anthemic psyched out acoustic folk record fuelled by the fires of Motown and Stax, with a heart the size of Alaska.
A kaleidoscope of sounds and emotion, 'Love & War', touches on themes ranging from romances gone wrong through the disillusionment of city-living and struggles of day to day life, to the current state of the over-developed world. 'Getting Out’ is a classic, universally applicable, break-up anthem in every-sense and 'Chainsaw' is an ode to a dysfunctional relationship that is more destructive than good. While 'Cigarettes', is a song about “fucking up”, regret and denial, 'For Your Money' documents Daniel's bittersweet relationship with his adopted home, and 'Impossible' is a song simply about putting everything down - while its subject matter is sad, its shuffle is infectious, making it a song for club DJs as much as radio airwaves. Other key moments on 'Love & War' include ‘Live by Night', (which was recently described by Ryan Adams as ‘perfect, like a blowjob on a yacht’), the chart-topping, national airplay hit ‘Change’ featuring Wale, and the anthemic forthcoming single, ‘Red’.
Featuring Sean Lennon on guitar, ‘Red’ works on various levels lyrically. On the surface it’s a song about a relationship gone wrong, but dig further and the relationship serves as a metaphor for looming political change and imploding capitalism, for the blindness of war and the current absence of compassion displayed by western administrations. ‘Red’ will be released by Allido/Columbia Records on 18th May 2009.
Every bit the classic debut one would have hoped and more, filled from start to finish with thrilling hit singles to boot, 'Love & War' not only speaks for itself, but proves Daniel Merriweather is now a long, long way from busking on a street corner in Melbourne just to earn a buck.
Album, ‘Love & War’, released on 1st June by Allido/Columbia Records
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