Album Review: Dan Le Sac - Space Between The Words

Few disappointments could be as complete as Space Between The Words. Those of us who endured the previous works of the duo Scroobius Pip and Dan Le Sac did so only for Le Sac's monstrous instrumentals. This album, we hoped, would see Le Sac freed from the tyranny of his untalented colleague. Once free, Le Sac would surely soar towards the heavens. No. Not so. What should have been a tour de force, a lesson in how to make pop music, Space Between The Words is instead a gentle, monotonous glide featuring none of the crunchy melodic mish-mash we Le Sac hangers on might have hoped for.

Break Of Dawn, the album's peak, offers a glimpse of the Le Sac we had expected but in reality is closer to a brief reimagining of New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies. Good Time Gang War is even closer to Le Sac's previous work but, unlike what he has shown us previously, it's boring. And, unprecedented for Le Sac, it's clumsy. A half hook – the song's title – is chopped, a little screwed, and then repeated at nauseum.

Other tracks are no fun to listen to. Long Night Of Life is an attempt at epic, but comes off only as empty. Hold Yourself Lightly is trip hop, that genre that celebrates the pedestrian, par excellence. Perhaps most incredibly, our host has shown a knack (that his partnership with Scroobius Pip should have alerted us to) for choosing voices that are not engaging; many guests on Space Between The Words are prominent and experienced. But none shine. And many are consumed by Le Sac's canvasses. This was Le Sac's chance. Or maybe this was our chance to love Le Sac. Whichever, both opportunities were missed.