Rating: NNN
Woodsy North Carolina folkie David Karsten Daniels made three bedroom records for socially disengaged types (those with massive beards, fishing rods, philosophy books, etc). But on Sharp Teeth, he’s busted out of his shell to some degree. That makes this fourth album a bit schizophrenic, dancing between the croaky quietness of his intimate loner moments and the onslaught of a 19-player, near-orchestral congregation that includes a string section and full brass band that adds a nice dose of Dixieland to tracks like Scripts. The see-saw dynamic plays with your nerves after a while. And when a start-to-finish chamber pop tune like American Pastime works so well, you kinda wish Daniels would just knock off the lonely, log cabin guy persona completely.
