Nearly five years in the making, Daniel Land’s newest album Out of Season debuted earlier this month. These songs were about the complexity of memory, history and the journey of reminiscing Land’s childhood.
Land’s music is predominantly in the alternative pop genre. He uses elements of rhythm guitar, keyboard, bass and string instruments against the sonic discussion throughout the tracks. The album’s early stages began in 2018, incorporating it around when the United Kingdom had an upset with Europe.
For context, the UK negotiated to possibly leave Europe’s union. In November 2018, there was a withdrawal agreement established, however parliament voted against. Inspiring Land’s newest creation, he couldn’t escape his surroundings and how his life grew to this possible moment of political history.
The opening song “Alison” is an up-beat melody about a memorable love of someone in his life. Being so enamored with this person, the instrumentals mimic the highs and lows of this connection, fast-paced in the beginning and chorus, while the verses drop down, keeping in sync with the strumming guitar.
“White Chalk” slows down the pace of the album, with a much slower beat compared to the previous song. This is also another song that signifies what the country was fighting against. The pain is very prominent in Land’s voice, straining through the track for the issues he is watching unfold.
Right after, there is a much more catchy beat with drums and piano keys opening “Lemon Boy.” The title was inspired by a main character’s nickname from the play “Angels in America” written by Tony Kushner. Land sings “Won’t you tell me what I need to know / Where we can hide / I’m sneaking all around the town” and was inspired by the plot of the play tackling the issues surrounding AIDS being a hidden secret among the world before treatment.
The lyrics of “Another Year Older” describe how as another year adds onto their lifetime, the protagonist feels they still don’t know as much as they should. Land repeats the line “Another year older, all that you’ve grown / But you can’t hold love” and singing “I just don’t know myself” grapples with the fact he is becoming more unfamiliar, to himself.
“Southern Soul” is a track on the album that is the retelling of a hookup with someone who had not come out yet from Land’s hometown. The event now being lost in his memory, some lyrics like “No one needs to ever know” and “We couldn’t be together” among many other lines signifies that this is all but a memory that Daniel Land thinks of, four and half minutes of ballad to account to the lost intimacy.
The title track “Out of Season” has less fluidity among the instrumentals like the previous tracks. It feels more dark and mysterious with a much lower octave and key in comparison to the rest of the album. “Out of Season” has a double meaning, the song unlike the others on the track list along with the memories and history being outdated to his present life.
The last song off of the album is “Wolf Moon,” which was released as a single. Even slower in comparison to “Out of Season,” this track keeps the same sound Land has maintained throughout the album, but even more sad and emotional. The musicality is far from upbeat, geared toward a consistent dark mood with the drums and guitar being in sync. A “Wolf Moon” represents reflection and Land is experiencing that deeply in this album.
Out of Season was an anticipated album to add to Daniel Land’s discography and it does not disappoint. There was a clear process that Land followed to craft each song from his surroundings of the UK to his own memories he dug into for emotional interpretation for the music.
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