I think I have reviewer writer's block at the moment, or something. And, defying easy description (or, you know, well I'm ideologically obliged to say ‘evaluation' or whatever because I fervently believe music writing should be anything *but* "just describing the music"), is Danielson, aka the musical tribe of ever-quirky Daniel Smith, the squeaky-voiced acceptable indie face of US evangelical Christianity, whose Trying Hartz is a somewhat inscrutable (from a reviewing point of view, not a listening one by any means other than, you know, finding the time/inclination to actually sit down and listen to the whole damn thing) trawl through his pre-Ships discography. Ships being his ‘breakthrough' record of sorts I guess, well... the cast of backing musicians was more high-profile- Deerhoof, Why? and the likes, and it got a rightfully positive ‘Best New Music' review from Pitchfork back in the days when such things could still cause your career to genuinely explode... I don't know why but it seems like it doesn't matter so much anymore, maybe its just me... I mean Fleet Foxes kind of exploded but still... according to my girlfriend they're on a compilation CD they play in Clarks called ‘Retail Moods'. Nuff said...Anyway.... this is a really good compilation. This is a really good compilation for precisely the same reason why it defies easy summarisation, because firstly its taken from all over the shop of Smith's discography chronologically and scrambled up, so it has a running order that works on a listening level rather than an ‘informs you when it was recorded' one. Secondly, it's really fucking hard to listen to all the way through, because whilst Danielson's great and all in small doses, after an hour and a half (or even, lets face it, half an hour) it gets a little bit tough to stand. But see this is the thing though because it is is precisely those same qualities that make Danielson hard to listen to in large doses so great in small doses- the ecstatic, maximalist, ramshackle, freewheelingness of the whole thing. Its indie-pop as vaguely outsider-ish Christian collective... Daniel Johnston's more confident, willing to show-off little brother. And its ace. Danielson always sound like Danielson, but its never entirely obvious, in-song, just where they're going to go. So ‘Jersey Loverboy' swings from section to easy section and sings about making babies and stuff, ‘A No No' launches mid-way into "I love my Lord, I love my Lord" and its just like: "wow I wish I were a Christian" and ‘Pottymouth' is some weird Christian teenage sexual health video narrative or something about dating someone who swears. Another part of what makes Trying Hartz work so well is that about a fifth or so of whats on here is live tracks, so you get the likes of ‘Don't You Be The Judge' where Smith gets the audience to improvise the verses of all things, and this is probably the one instance ever where its really, really worked. For anyone who, like me, has never explored Danielson past Ships, this is a treasure trove. To make a tired point, I think you should get it. 78%Danielson on MySpace