''Good News'' is the first full-length album by British artist Dan Willson, also known as

Withered Hand Dan Willson (born 23 July 1974), also known by his stage name Withered Hand, is an Edinburgh-based indie rock musician. He lived in Bishops Stortford during the 1990s and played guitar for local band Tin Foil Circus. His first studio album, ' ...

. Originally released on 14 September 2009 in the UK on

SL Records SL Records was a record label based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1997 and is known for releasing anti-folk, alternative rock, and indie pop albums. The label's first release was the compilation album ''It's a Life Sentence'', which ...

, it was re-released on

Absolutely Kosher Records Absolutely Kosher Records is an independent California-based record label founded in 1998 in San Francisco by Cory Brown. The label moved to Berkeley in 2002 and then to Emeryville in October 2006 when it partnered with Misra Records. The two la ...

in 2011 in the US. The album's title is a reference to Willson's upbringing as a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ev ...

.Withered Hand Profile

The album was funded by the

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the ...

. Maggoty Lamb has written that "If you want to hear an album that genuinely does justice to the manna-from-heaven style succour that Domino Records' pre-

Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. F ...

roster of US acoustic misfits gave to those wandering in the post-Britpop wilderness, ''Good News'' by Withered Hand...is the one to go for. Not so much for its explicit acknowledgement of aesthetic debt (lines about writing "the Silver Jews" on people's shoulder bags will only take you so far) as for the authentically homegrown twist the songwriting manages to put on its transatlantic influences".

Track listing

All songs written by Dan Willson unless otherwise indicated. #"Providence" #"Cornflake" #"Love in the Time of Ecstasy" #"Joy" (written by Dan Mutch) #"New Dawn" #"Religious Songs" #"No Cigarettes" #"I Am Nothing" #"Hard On" (Charles Latham cover) #"For the Maudlin"

References

{{Authority control 2009 debut albums Absolutely Kosher Records albums Withered Hand albums Albums produced by Kramer (musician)