Today at work Matt (the other one) threw on an interesting-looking CD called The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele. I’d seen him mentioned on a few blogs and had been meaning to check him out. From the first song I was way into the album, but “You Can’t Force a Dance Party” is the one that really sold me on the album.

MP3: Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele - You Can’t Force a Dance Party
On this track, Dent May is less like Morrissey and more like Noah and the Whale or Benni Hemm Hemm. I do, however, wish I could hear this song with some Oh You’re So Silent Jens-style horns in the background. But still, it’s soft and sweet with just a touch of loving humor. Dent is so bummed out that no one is dancing to his favorite cuts, at the party he threw for his visiting Brooklyn girl; but his girl has a better alternative to trying to make them dance: he and she should just kiss instead. Maybe this is what the Magnetic Fields would sound like if Stephin Merritt was a chipper 19-year-old.

Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele on Myspace

Dent May: “Oh, Paris!” Music Video