Harvey Danger are my favorite, favorite band, and I have written about them a few times. They sadly broke up in 2009, but that is no reason not to listen to them! Let’s move onward.

Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone?
This is their first album, and it is the one you may have heard. The single is called Flagpole Sitta. I have always thought the title is pretty appropriate for the tone of the album, at least partly because lyricist and vocalist Sean Nelson is the sort of person who would be concerned with that sort of thing. It is less polished than the other albums, but in a very appropriate way. This is an album about departures and reflection. I am not entirely convinced lo-fi is the term I want here, but it’s got a simple sound with pretty memories, beautiful vocals, and lyrics which are hopeful and nostalgic and sad. It is simple and straightforward and makes me happy. If you like your indie rock simple and nostalgic, you could do no better than this album.

King James Version
In contrast, the King James Version is a complex and sarcastic exploration of faith and skepticism and alienation. Polished, self-aware, and snarky, this album has a lot of energy and a lot of really great moments. Mostly it is a restless album, from Carjack Fever suggesting that we “empty all the minibars and leave this town in flames” to Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo’s tale of its titular heroine and her life of corporate drudgery. There is a lot of dissatisfaction and restlessness expressed here in a lot of different ways, because Sean Nelson is excellent at capturing those subtle nuances of things. It closes with The Same As Being In Love, which is one of my favorite Harvey Danger songs and certainly my favorite closing track. If you like guitars and energetic well-constructed rock albums, you probably want this one first.

Little By Little…
This album came five years later and represents quite the departure stylistically, from the guitar rock of KJV to a more mellow, piano-driven sound. (It is also available for free as a download at their website, so you have no excuse for not listening. At all. This is free music, completely free, and it is a really good album. That is free.) The pianos give it a more mature sound, and lends itself nicely to an album which is darker and, if not exactly brooding, at least a little bleaker. (It also makes one of the happiest songs on the planet, Happiness Writes White, even prettier.) There are songs about record collections, stalkers, shattered relationships, and dying by what you live by. Despite this it ends on an optimistic note in Diminishing Returns, about finding something tangible in a world of -isms. It seems to say: This will all make sense one day, so just hang on. The perfect album for people who like introspective albums, and especially for people who like to fall in love with songs about someone who has fallen in love with their music collection.