Dan Bern
Fleeting Days

After his debut in 1993, Dan Bern was dubbed "the new Bob Dylan." Though that wasn’t entirely off the mark, Bern’s songwriting more likely was apt to take an appropriation of Dylan and filter it though Elvis Costello’s punked-up roots-rock. Since then, however, Bern seemingly has taken the comparisons with Dylan to heart and gradually, he’s tempered his albums, culminating with the surreally socio-political musings that wandered throughout New American Language. Some dug it. But for those who didn’t, Fleeting Days, his latest release, finds Bern shifting firmly back to Costello’s realm, albeit with more maturity than he brought to bear on his early efforts.

Once again backed by the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy, his sarcastically named touring band, Bern rips into Fleeting Days’ thirteen songs, serving up a steady stream of gems for the pop-conscious masses. His melodies are bouncy and buoyant, and their sprightly nature is designed to rattle around in one’s brain, bringing out the sense of hope that flutters about in his disillusioned world. Though New American Language was released post-9/11, it was undoubtedly recorded — and its songs written — before that fateful event. So, that makes Fleeting Days Bern’s first full-length commentary on the new world order. His biting sense of humor is downplayed, and rather than turn political, he crafts the album into a personal, though universal, statement about what is truly important. He grapples with both religion and consumerism, but it’s tales of the heart that clearly have Bern’s attention. In a world gone mad with war, Superman asks Lois Lane to run away with him, and Bern pines for both Eva and Jane, while apologizing for his past transgressions. It was John Lennon who once sang, "Love is the answer," and throughout Fleeting Days, Bern searches everywhere for it.