Review: Dan Reed Network 'Let's Hear It For The King'

Dan Reed Network

By Mike O’Cull

Funk/rock wrecking crew Dan Reed Network plays hard and thinks deeply on the band’s new album Let’s Hear It For The King. The set drops June 17th, 2022 on the Drakkar Entertainment label and doles out big beats, ripping guitars, and biting social commentary in equal measure.

It’s the sixth studio effort of Reed’s career and his first since 2018. Reed co-produced the record with band keyboardist Rob Daiker and the pair captured what’s likely to be considered DRN’s finest hour since the band’s debut in 1988. Reed is a high-octane, iconoclastic vocalist and songwriter with a style that’s both house-rocking and personal and he puts it together with a muscular band that can run at his pace. The results of this combination scream for themselves. “This is the heaviest, funkiest and most melodic DRN album to date,” says Reed. “These songs are the strongest representation of the band’s sound that we’ve ever created.”

The sound of Let’s Hear It For The King brings DRN to its full-circle point. It’s built upon the heavy, funk-influenced rock and roll that first launched the group in the late 1980s and folds in the kind of thought-provoking lyrics and inventive melodies that will send this new record around the world in 2022. The present band membership of Reed on lead vocals, guitar, and synth, Brion James on guitar, vocals, and synth, Melvin Brannon II on bass and vocals, Dan Pred on drums, and Rob Daiker on keyboards, vocals, and guitar is a two-fisted outfit that propels every one of these new tracks to its absolute zenith. Listen once and the picture will paint itself.

To get a taste of what Reed does, crank up the opening cut “Pretty Karma.” It’s a tough, pulsating song with a hammering guitar riff, a huge pocket, and a lot of critical things to say to the strong who prey on the weakest among us. Reed invokes the universal law of cause and effect in his lyrics in an almost memento mori way meant to remind those who create division that what goes around does, indeed, come around. The song also does a great job of blending distorted guitars and synth bass lines together.

“The Ghost Inside” is cool and moody at first but opens up into a spacious chorus that will fill your speakers. Its mid-tempo groove supports well-written lyrics about darkness, regrets, and the feeling of not being able to overcome something. The grinding main riff is an instant ear worm, too, and fits the topic of the song well, conveying its tension with just a few choice notes. Reed’s voice flies high over everything with true rock star precision and presence here and throughout the record and it’s easy to hear his natural power.

One of the record’s most innovative moments is its title track “Let’s Hear It For The King.” It’s a Dan Reed and Brion James co-write that mixes rock and dubstep concepts into something new we’ve not yet experienced. Reed’s lyrics go after the hypocrisy of the wealthy and the way they get to make the rules in no uncertain terms. He’s a fearless social critic who lets his words out to do their own work in people’s hearts, an act of bravery that should be applauded.

“Homegrown” rocks a slinky funk verse into a heavyweight chorus with a big hook and crunching guitars. Lyrically, the song celebrates the love and connection we feel when we’re with the right people, the ones who refill our souls. It’s an outstanding, relatable cut that was also released as a single.

Every bit of Let’s Hear It For The King kicks an impressive amount of backside, which is a DRN tradition. Still, be sure to jam to deep cuts like “Just Might Get It” and “Are You Ready.” Dan Reed Network remains one of best rock bands out there and only shows signs of getting better. This is the strong stuff, so brace yourself before you cue it up.