The warm comfort of Dan Mangan's Being Somewhere

Vancouver singer-songwriter Dan Mangan's sixth studio album, Being Somewhere, is one of the 10 shortlisted albums vying for this year's Polaris Music Prize. CBC Music's Shortlist Shortcut series is back again this summer to help music fans discover the key details about all 10 records. 

Dig into the stories behind the album, the tracks you need to know, and the perfect summer activities to complement your listening below.  

You can also listen to The Ten radio special on the album. 

Artist: 

Dan Mangan.

Album: 

Being Somewhere.

Polaris Music Prize history: 

Mangan's second album, Nice, Nice, Very Nice, was shortlisted for the 2010 Polaris Prize, and his followup album, Oh Fortune, was longlisted in 2012. This is Mangan's second shortlist nomination.

Story behind the nominated album: 

When Mangan set out to make Being Somewhere, the plan wasn't to use it as catharsis through a pandemic — but the world had other designs. The singer-songwriter met with producer Drew Brown in late 2019 to first chat about the project, and a few months later the world shut down. It would take 571 emails, 100-plus phone hours and thousands of text messages to create the album over two years, plus just three in-person days with Brown. Its beating-heart message: it's cool to care.

The result of all that long-distance work is an album that is very much of its time, but touches a larger loneliness people were feeling long before COVID-19 took hold. Being Somewhere speaks to connection, vulnerability and community in a way that is timeless but still achingly specific. As Mangan told Montreal Rocks when the album came out in fall 2022, he sees Being Somewhere as having four acts: the first is "how we're doing" ("All My People," "Fire Escape"); the second is "how I'm doing," speaking about himself ("Easy," "Just Know It," "All Roads"); the third, the "more tender-hearted" section, is "how can I help you to be still?" ("In Your Corner," "Long After," "Wish I Was Here"); and the conclusion is "how it all makes sense" ("No Tragedy Please"). Friendship, loneliness, love and isolation all exist in life together, and Being Somewhere tries to connect all of that.

You can hear Mangan experimenting with his sound on Being Somewhere, including layering, looping and synths, continuing to lean away from the folk music for which he was originally known. Part of that is his work with Brown, whose artist resumé includes Radiohead and Beck, but Mangan's been experimenting with his sound for years, never wanting to create the same album twice. It's his lyricism that shines brightest, though, revealing a keen sense of feeling that Mangan brings to each album. In the press material for Being Somewhere, he said he "wanted this album to feel like the inside crook of a familiar elbow on the nape of your neck, a comforting embrace" — and it will be, if you let it.

Notable players: 

For Being Somewhere, Mangan collaborated with producer Drew Brown, with additional musical contributors including: Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew, Joey Waronker (Beck, Atoms for Peace), Jason Falkner (Beck, St. Vincent), Thomas Bartlett (the National, Taylor Swift), Dave Okumu (Arlo Parks, Adele) and Mary Lattimore (Kurt Vile, Sharon Van Etten).

Standout song(s): 

'Fire Escape'

"Fire Escape" is a song about community, entangled with self-sabotage, all packaged in a catchy and sometimes unsettling mix of hopeful and weary lyricism. It begins with quietly marching keys, and Mangan's voice sounds almost underwater when he hits the first verse — a sonic representation of the distance we all felt when he was writing this album. Mangan had a literal fire escape in mind for this song, one that could serve as a gathering place for people who hadn't been able to congregate, but it's impossible to shed the sense of emergency that it represents, too. 

A song about "our unshakable longing to be seen, heard and understood," as Mangan said in an early press release, "Fire Escape" drills down from the communal to the individual, which is hilariously represented in the song's video. It stars actor Steven Ogg from Snowpiercer and The Walking Dead, who plays Mangan's "Self," an overtly aggressive manifestation of the singer's psyche. Ogg's character is constantly sabotaging the singer, often glaring, yelling or even violently interfering with Mangan, who's just trying to go about his regular life. Ogg is a stand-in for self-doubt and self-sabotage, and the video is darkly funny, matching the song's musically and lyrically uneasy undercurrents. 

'In Your Corner (For Scott Hutchison)'

Scott Hutchison was a Scottish singer-songwriter, and founding member and lead singer for the band Frightened Rabbit. He talked and wrote frankly about his struggles with depression, and in 2018 he died by suicide when he was just 36. Hutchison was an influential singer-songwriter for many artists, including Mangan, who had met the artist only once. "In Your Corner" is a response to Mangan's favourite Frightened Rabbit song, "The Woodpile." 

On "The Woodpile," Hutchison heartbreakingly sings, "Will you come back to my corner? Spent too long alone tonight." In a stripped-down response, Mangan reaches out on "In Your Corner": "Leave a light on when it's bad/ we will congregate and make a plan/ we'll be in your corner." 

Recommended if you like: 

The National, Amelia Curran, Wintersleep, Better Oblivion Community Centre, Hayden.

Summer activity pairing: 

Being Somewhere is meant for those quiet summer moments: think floating on a lake, beverage of choice in hand; playing crib while the rain keeps you inside; driving home after a weekend away, the windows rolled down and the sun setting at your back.

Don't miss Shortlist Summer: a season-long showcase of the 10 albums shortlisted for the 2023 Polaris Music Prize. Read the weekly Polaris Shortlist Shortcut feature at cbcmusic.ca/polaris and tune into The Ten radio special every Sunday night at cbc.ca/listen.

Follow CBC Music's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok feeds on Tuesday, Sept.19, for live updates on the Polaris Music Prize and 2023 winner. Highlights from the Polaris Music Prize will air on CBC Music Live on Friday, Sept. 22, at 2 p.m. (2:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio One and CBC Listen, and Monday, Sept. 25, at 6 p.m. (6:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Music and CBC Listen.