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

Drakkar Entertainment (June 17th 2022)

Reviewer: Dan Mann

I’ll admit I was a tad excited when the promo for ‘Let’s Hear It For The King‘ landed in my inbox. I’ve been a fan of DRN since my first baptism of fire at their debut gig at the Marquee, one of the more memorable gigs I’ve ever attended!

I hit play while doing that very rock ‘n roll activity of housework and I’ll be honest and say initially I was not disappointed as such, it just didn’t immediately grab me. I was somewhat confounded, this can’t be right at all. Then I found the issue…..the hifi wasn’t cranked up enough! After a dramatic increase in volume and bam! the first track ‘Pretty Kama‘ proceeded to hit me right between the eyes.

Oh hallelujah, we’ve hit the sweet spot of all things Dan Reed Network. Since that first wrong footing, I have played the album quite a few times, each play discovering a smidge of music I’d somehow not caught before, each track just expanding out into what is an unbelievable soundscape. Man, the production on this album is superb and that’s listening to a low bitrate mp3, so I cannot wait to hear the actual CD itself.

‘Let’s Hear It For The King‘ cleverly includes elements of DRN from across their career, that funktastic attitude of the debut, through the more thoughtful songs of ‘The Heat‘, to the political / social /environment awareness that makes Dan Reed & Co who they are.

Favorite tracks on an album are sometimes very obvious and will stay that way. With ‘Let’s Hear It For The King‘ I find it changes on every play, a rare thing to deliver for sure. There are no duds, no so so’s or could have been’s. From the emotionally grabbing ‘I See Angels‘, to the sheer dynamics of the title track, to ‘Where’s The Revolution‘, which would fit perfectly on ‘Slam‘, or the Scandi melodic hard rock overtones of ‘Just Might Get It‘, or the energetic final song ‘Are You Ready‘ there is everything you want and expect on a Dan Reed Network album

I fear I’m coming across as gushing, but I don’t care! This album has catapulted right to the top of my favorite releases of 2022.

It is funk, it is rock, it is awareness, it is Dan Reed Network!