what strikes me most impressively about the danielson family is the creativity and freshness about the music. it's strange and unconventional, not modern or punk rock, an alternative to "alternative". this can be scary for many listeners, fearing an adventure into a strange land. dan smith, the main danielson persona, has a unique style of singing, adding more to the strangeness. i think a good comparison of the music is Beck meets the Partridge Family, with some experimental sensibilities from Sonic Youth and Jad Fair/Half-Japanese or the craziness of Wesley Willis. this is a realm very rarely entered by any artist, let alone a family of Christians. this album is much better than the first release, one i also loved dearly and one dearly loved by the cmj (college music journal). the production is a nice polished low-fi sound, helped by noise rock god, Kramer of Shimmy Disc records and Bongwater. it's a great improvement over the no-fi 4-track basement recording of the first project. the background vocals strike me as incredible, they stick out wonderfully, very ethereal. (dan calls them heavenly.) the lyrics are creative, hard-hitting when contemplated. dan writes as a folk singer with a world to change, but writes with incredible ingenuity and even genius. this is THE record to buy for someone ready to give something new a chance. (hope you like it. this album kills me ... it's incredible)