Daniel Merriweather - Love & War

DANIEL MERRWEATHER who grew up in the Dandenong Ranges of Melbourne, Australia had his first commercially released recording with the track ‘All I Want’ in 2002. In 2003 he had a guest appearance on the MARK RONSON album ‘Here comes the Fuzz (She’s got Me)’ and it would be Ronson producing Daniel’s first solo single ‘City Rules’ in 2004. Five years later his debut album ‘Love & War’ is close to a release produced by… guess who.

On his first full length disc containing 12 tracks in total Daniel presents us with a particularly catchy mixture of Blues, Pop, and even a glimpse of folk comes through later. But first things first! The album’s opener is ‘For your Money’ a mellow, balladry track starting with Daniel singing over a piano melody with subtly drums and dramatic strings added later to the mix. With the second track ‘Impossible’ is going to get a little more rhythmic, and groovy with a shuffle beat, before we come to that folk thingy I talked about above that is ‘Cigarette’. Acoustic guitar, piano with a few electronic drums intermixed will be the sonic carpet Daniel’s markedly good voice unfolds on in the next few minutes. On ‘Water and a Flame’ Daniel duets with British Grammy award winning soul singer Adele and it’s striking how good both their voices harmonize. In the end all I can say about ‘Love & War’ is that it’s nice to listen through it from start to finish but I’m missing some more edges here and there. Daniel’s talent as a singer is beyond questioning though. Maybe Ronson should add less polish to the production next time.