Album Notes

"AND WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS, ALL WE HAVE ARE WORDS MERELY SO LISTEN UP, THEY'RE NOT TAKING YOU SERIOUSLY."

The lights might be low, orange, or yellow but the sound is unmistakable. An anthology of sampled rythyms, pops, and crashes comes together with drum and guitar. Grenades cascade into the forgotten underbelly of Middle America, and at last words rise to shake the audience from the malaise of celebrity and consuming. Sweat pours through the beard on his face, consonants and vowels fight to be the first out of his mouth. There is an urgent desperation to his voice. Listen now. Listen closely. Keep listening. Listener is censuring a country, Listener is assessing the audience, Listener is exhorting everyone, Listener is delivering the State of our Union. First and foremost Listener is Listening.

Hundreds upon hundreds of shows, tens of thousands of miles, dozens of countries, three continents, and two oceans have shaped and created one of the most unique voices of Hip-Hop. Homes, bars, basements, concert halls, and silence have all opened their doors to Listener's singular version of Talk Music. Listener, aka Dan Smith, had at one point put away his pen and left the sphere of music behind. However despite a willingness to embrace the certain uncertainty of the middle class, the world, his past, present, and future, would not be silent. And if one thing has defined Smith it is this: he is a listener. He is Listener.

His current body of work echoes the efforts of Bill Mallonee, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck D, and Dave Bazan. Smith emphatically punches and counterpunches with the same vital lyricism as the aforementioned Mallonee and Bazaan, turning his full attention to the story and tragedy of America's unremembered and uncelebrated multitudes. The stories of salesmen and waitresses, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives. Those just trying to make it, and those who have forgotten how. Telling these gothic tales of downfall and redemption Smith hopes to ask one burning question, "Why does is it take my voice to make you listen?"

Pay attention. Stay sharp. Listen closely. The stories, the music, it is our music, it is our story. We are all Listeners.