“How have I never heard of this guy?”
That’s what I said to my friend after I had listened to slimdan’s Second Dinner front to back on his recommendation.
Danny Silberstein has his fingerprints all over some beloved music. As a producer and writer, his credits include songs all over the map of pop and singer-songwriter music: Tiësto, Diplo, Steve Aoki, Carly Rae Jepsen, King Princess, Sasha Alex Sloan, and Jake Scott, to stop arbitrarily at seven people you’ve maybe heard of.
But his solo work, under the moniker slimdan, is where he gets to really shine.
It’s not uncommon for career collaborators to have side solo projects, with which they’re able to make precisely what they want to make without having to compromise. And with Second Dinner, it’s clear that Danny was doing just that.
Pure personality, no compromise.
The album is teeming with a quirky specificity – sports references, graphic meals, relationship problems beyond the reach of most pop music. Each song feels like a chapter of a book based on a true story, with a perfect balance of variety and familiarity. Some are unconventionally sweet (like “Foreverish”), and some are meant to be scream-sung in the back of a car (like “Nosebleeds” and “Drank on Accutane”).
He offhandedly describes moments and scenes with detail, like he’s looking at you and saying with a grin, “You were there, right?” It’s the best kind of vulnerability, the kind that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but is all the more powerful for it.
Sonically, the record is just as vulnerable. It’s sparse rather than overproduced, loose rather than tightened to death, light and airy rather than thick and try-hard. Danny’s vocals lay overtop like icing, half mere decoration, and half the point of the whole thing (the last chorus of “Celebrity Lookalikes” is the sonic highlight of the whole record).
Altogether, it’s an album for anyone looking for authenticity, emotion, and levity. And it’s among my favorites of the year.
