Dan Reed Network: Let’s Hear It For The King. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The divide that was to be seen as mere chasm, is now, by definition, an unassailable ocean. We are expected to cheer for the King, the president, the leader of a nation, as they wear the attire made of gold, whilst all around them are instructed to be thankful they have rags to wear.

The command is to be followed without question, and as the expected cheers fade to a roar only driven by the sycophantic and the privileged, so instead the force of a different voice takes hold, and it is for the royalty we deserve, the artists and the deliverers of reason, and those words, that sentiment of truth, Let’s Hear It For King or Queen rings with honour of an age devoid of honourable people in power.

Exhilaration is the driving force from the ground up, and those that once were lauded because of accidents of birth, are now replaced by the perspective of those who empathise through talent, through guts, determination, and the ability to understand what it means to have been kicked by a public but to whom can empathise with the concerns felt by all.

Dan Reed, alongside a top notch set of musicians, including Brion James, Melvin Brannon II, Dan Pred, and Rob Walker, frames the point of the uproariously cool cheer, for the King and Queen must show that they are also one of the crowd, they must exemplify the belief that they are a fan, one of the masses who would bellow hurrah just as much as being exulted by the same adoring audience.

A leader is not only human, but also the aura they inhabit, and as songs such as the album opener, Pretty Karma, The Ghost Inside, Supernova, I See Angels, the excellent Just Might Get It, Unfuck My World, and the closer of Last Day Of Saturn, the Dan Reed Network lay down the statement of a lifetime, the sense of the colossal that has always been part of the creed and culture of the sound, has been ramped up and accelerated, and the anticipation that has been shown by the fans for this first album since 2018, has been rewarded with untold wealth, of a bounty fit for the supporters of a King.

Let’s Hear It For The King, praise from the pulpit and the pew, let the hurrahs and compliments ring out with truth and honour, for the Dan Reed Network sit on the throne and with crowns shining with lustre; the old kings have given way, and in their place true Rock royalty resides.

Dan Reed Network release Let’s Hear It For The King on June 17th on Drakkar Entertainment.

Ian D. Hall