For more than a decade, Dan Mangan has ping-ponged between his sweet spot as an acoustic troubadour and more adventurous sonic explorations. He worked with his jazzy backing band Blacksmith on 2015's cryptic Club Meds, returned to straightforward singer-songwriter material on 2018's career highlight More or Less, then dabbled in production-heavy textures on 2022's Being Somewhere.
It's always interesting to hear where he goes next, but his acoustic ballads are his signature for a reason — and that's why it's great to hear him return to his roots on Natural Light. Seemingly a response to Being Somewhere, which was recorded remotely during the pandemic, Natural Light is a band-in-a-room record developed with the most troubadour-y of all origin stories: a cabin in the woods, where Mangan and his band retreated for six days.
It's an album of grandeur (the horn crescendo of "I Hated Love Songs" leading into the strange pitter-patter sound collage of "Contained Free") and wide-lens lyricism (the political teachings of the aptly named "Soapbox"). But, most importantly, it's full of stripped-down introspection from someone who's really good at that sort of thing.