I managed to catch Dan Warburton performing a solo set a few weeks back and, though my memory is a little hazy (The Great Escape came afterwards), I remember it being pretty enjoyable partly thanks to the possibly tipsy bits between songs, but mostly for the nice music, strong vocals and good lyrics. The Devil You Know is Dan’s most recent EP, released at the end of April.
Opening with ‘Forts’, the EP starts strongly, the muted piano notes ringing over a cleanly picked acoustic guitar with lyrics reminiscing about a year young ago with the naivety that comes with being young. It may be the first track but it’s also, rather conveniently, the track I would suggest listening to first, the production and they simple instrumentation making this a nice listen. ‘Dug In The Deep’ is a clear breakup song, with some good lyrics and pleasant acoustic sections, although I’ll admit that I’m not a massive fan of the electric guitar – there’s something about the way they come together which doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t detract from the bulk of the song though.
‘Get Your Own Taun Taun’ is a pretty strong attempt at making a love song out of Star Wars, something I doubted was possible until hearing this. It’s pretty clever lyrically and, as you may expect, is loaded with references that fans of the films will enjoy. The title track ‘The Devil You Know’ is a bit of a slow builder, but the end is pretty strong with the palm muted strumming matched to some great lyrics. All in all a strong, if a little short, blast of acoustic music. I’m not entirely convinced by the electric guitar parts, but the acoustic parts and the vocals are pretty great, and the production is top notch too. Definitely worth picking up from Bandcamp.
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