Dan Parsons – Run With Me
Review by: Lana Harris

Available at

It’s a little known fact that record companies are the perpetuators of the idea that only by hearing a song can you get it out of your head – which conveniently places it in one thousand other people’s minds when you request it on the radio. Eventually people buy it for an always accessible cure, and thus the song’s place on the charts is secured. ‘Cut Off’, the B side track to ‘Run with Me’, is a song that gets stuck in your mind.

Verses open on drums and vocals, the guitars follow a few bars later, and soon enough the tempo has built up to the four word chorus. Tambourine and piano chords add more interest to the usual instruments that dominate guitar based singles. ‘Cut Off’ could be a stand alone single, as could ‘We Were so Young’, a track which screams ‘our song’ for girls with floral dresses and their childhood sweethearts. The B sides’ quality suggests that when the album is released, it will be an impressive offering.

The single chosen for first release is ‘Run With Me’, a soft, reflective song that lets guitar chords rather than drums lead the up and down pace of the song. It’s bittersweet, there’s a sadness to the music, but the gently tinkling tambourine and the faster parts of the song thread hope through the sorrow. Perhaps the logic in having this song as first single is Dan wanting to show people he can do more than just write a catchy tune.

If you liked The Shins before they featured in Garden State, or identify with Zach Braff’s lead character, you will probably like Dan Parsons. He’s inoffensive, but in a quirky, you want to listen to him again kind of way. Plus he’s bringing back the tambourine! A man to watch out for.