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Daan worked in relative obscurity for many years before making any headway in his music career. The result is obvious from this album: Daan has an amazing command of songwriting and arrangement. He can make music in any style, and he mixes styles at will. He is also exceptionally creative. He keeps a tight control on all the production stages of his music, which he records in his own studio.

Daan is the kind of person who writes one more or less traditional disco song in his life, and turns it into the best disco song you heard in your life. It's the opening song on this album, Swedish Designer Drugs. The absurd, surreal lyrics hint at just about anything Swedish you can think of, but the most obvious reference (what was that Swedish disco band again?) is strangely absent. So is the cheese that you'd normally associate with disco of the Swedish persuation.

More cheese: several songs are clearly meant to emulate German musical styles. The best (or worst) example is Promis Q, where the folkloric German Schlager music gets a Daan treatment. But Daan gives it a twist: he starts from a banal musical style and turns it into something interesting. French musical genres get a similar treatment on this album. But it all blends so well that you wouldn't notice these influences unless you paid particular attention to them.

"Housewife", Daan's techno song, is the highlight of the album. Again, he takes a musical idiom, and twists and turns it into something undeniably Daan.

You would expect that such a mishmash of styles would lead to an album that lacks coherence. It doesn't. Daan has such a strong personality and musical ability that a signature style emerges that is instantly recognizable. Daan is a rare musical genius. Absolutely recommended if you're in for an adventure.

People interested in this music might want to check the German Amazon site, which has samples of the songs.