Danielson "I'm Slow But I'm Sloppy"

Around the middle of "I'm Slow But I'm Sloppy" (mp3), Daniel Smith puts forth a statement of purpose, one that both acknowledges his critics and reifies his musical ideology: "Reading my clippings/Taste is in their mouths/I declare, I refuse/To sing about/Guitars or the blues now." Smith's always been pensive, but it's a unique meta-critique from a songwriter traditionally rooted in the opposite sort of lyrical style. It's the type of sentiment that would gum up the flow of a typical Danielson album, but it works nicely as a single on a different label (Anticon) limited to 1500 copies---like a hidden, personal statement to those who want to seek it out. And I'm sort of ruining that here, if my suspicions are correct---sorry. The instrumental backdrop for the song is provided by Anticon's Why?, and like much of Ships, it bobs along in an acoustic-reggae-folk meter, but the instrumentation is what sets the song apart from typical Smith. A repeated marimba pattern, buoyed by clip-clop percussion and occasional handclaps provide an equally collectival, but more exotic, darker and decidedly less hootenannyish feel for the song. When Smith is still Smith, though, is when searching for deep Christian meaning in literature, nature, and his own mind, and he wonders aloud in this song (in his uniquely polite and childlike manner) as to his greater role in this world (or something). It leads to an equally familiar chorus, in which Smith is able to take solace in the unknown: "Combing these grand sands/While dying to meet/Those waves/That someday will all be taking me out of the way."

Buy the EP from Anticon here.