Dan Croll

"Dan Croll undergoes both a personal and musical epiphany on a terrific third outing"

THE LINE OF BEST FIT – 9/10

"A beautiful and moving chart of a year in his life, Dan's latest 'Grand Plan' has clearly paid off." – DIY – 4****

"Dreamy, diary entry-style songs set mostly to acoustic guitar document awkward encounters at parties, falling out with a flatmate and, on standout title track, the feeling that Croll has been left behind as friends forge ahead with their lives"

THE SUNDAY TIMES

"Charmingly introspective yet intensely relatable" – GIGWISE – 8/10

"The structure of the album is beautifully crafted, with each of the tracks like pages of a calendar that detail Croll's life, presenting a personal diary window of sorts into his world." – MUSIC OMH – 4****
 

Following on from the release of his acclaimed 2020 studio album 'Grand Plan' and follow-up EP 'On Top' last year, Dan Croll returns with a raw and deeply personal new track, 'How Close We Came' . It was recorded at Montrose Recording in Richmond, Virginia with Spacebomb's Matthew E. White (Natalie Prass, Flo Morrissey, Slow Club) and his four-piece house band and co-produced by Dan himself.

Stripped-back and strikingly direct, 'How Close We Came' finds Croll reflecting on the end of a profoundly important relationship.

Speaking about the track, he said, "I've not had many serious breakups in my life, and most of my experiences have come through seeing friends around me going through quite explosive and toxic separations. In this case, after the initial heartbreak, it was something I felt quite proud of. We'd been through so much together and really grew into much better people, and so "How Close We Came" was about that period of looking back with pride on such a profound experience."

Dan Croll's most recent album 'Grand Plan' chronicled the twelve-month period starting in February 2018 when he impulsively decided to move to Los Angeles after the realisation that he was becoming restless in his native Liverpool. The restlessness was an existential one; Croll, like many in the latter half of their twenties, was questioning the very fibre of his being - career, relationships, life-choices, future. So he upped sticks. The resulting transition to life in California, going back to basics with his song-writing and taking inspiration from the music that truly inspired him (James Taylor, Burt Bacharach, Joni Mitchell), pushed Dan to document his experiences across 20-odd songs, eventually whittling them down to twelve chapters that chronicled this turbulent and formative twelve months, 'Grand Plan' ended on a note of romantic optimism, but his new material finds Croll at another crossroads. Still in L.A. he documents recent events with self-awareness, warmth and wit as a way to help him decide which direction to take. Five years after leaving his beloved Liverpool on a whim, his newest work poses a fundamental question - is it finally time to come home"

"What I love about songwriting is that it lets your subconscious out," says Dan. "You start a creative ball rolling and suddenly a sea of revelations arrives. I didn't know that my time here might be up until I listened back to the lyrics. Have I made up my mind yet? Maybe."