Little by Little... is the third and final studio album by American rock band Harvey Danger. It was initially released on September 13, 2005, through the band's label Phonographic Records. It is the band's first and only album with drummer Michael Welke, replacing the band's original drummer Evan Sult. The album marked a stylistic shift for the band, away from the guitar-oriented indie rock influenced by acts such as Weezer, Nirvana, and Pavement and towards a piano-focused sound.

The album received generally positive reviews from critics, specifically for its pop styling, although the band's "smart" lyrical style received more varied responses. It would the band's last album of entirely new material–followed up by rarities collection Dead Sea Scrolls (2009)–as well as including the band's third- and second-to-last singles before their final composition, "The Show Must Not Go On".

Release The album was released on the band's own Phonographic Records label on September 13, 2005. The CD version featured a second disc of B-sides and outtakes in deluxe packaging. In an effort to "embrace the indisputable fact of music in the 21st century",PDF version: the band made the album available as a free download via BitTorrent and on the band's website. They pointed out that "it’s important that people understand the free download concept isn’t a frivolous act. It’s a key part of our promotional campaign, along with radio and press promotion, live shows, and videos. It’s a bet that the resources of the Internet can make possible a new way for musicians to find their audience – and forge a meaningful artistic career built on support from cooperative, not adversarial, relationships."

On April 19, 2006, the band announced on their MySpace blog that the album had been picked up by Olympia-based label Kill Rock Stars for nationwide release on July 25, 2006. The re-release's track listing, song order, and album art is different from the Phonographic Records release. The band did some limited touring to accompany the release.

Album and song titles The album title is taken from a quote by Melvyn Douglas's character Homer Bannon in the 1963 film Hud: "Little by little, the look of the country changes because of the men we admire."

The title of the song "Cream and Bastards Rise" is a quote by Paul Newman's character in Harper (1966). "Happiness Writes White" is a maxim first put forth by French writer Henry de Montherlant.

"The Piano Lesson" features someone attempting to play Beethoven's "Für Elise" before switching to Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer."

"Wine, Women and Song" is the first line of "Villanelle of the Poet's Road" by Ernest Christopher Dowson.

Reception

Little by Little... received generally positive reviews upon release, with AllMusic calling it "smart and compelling" and praising the band returning from their hiatus with "all their smarts (and hooks) intact". Paste further praised the album, calling it "gentle" and "melodious".

In a less positive review, Adam Moerder for Pitchfork praised the band's shift towards pop compositions while critiquing the album for retaining the lyrical style of the band's earlier indie-oriented work, finding it "leaving [listeners] with delightful vestiges [of 90's indie bands] though ultimately sounding like a Ben Folds album".

Track listing All songs written by Aaron Huffman, Jeff J. Lin and Sean Nelson.[ Little by Little...] from Allmusic

Phonographic Records release (2005)

Kill Rock Stars release (2006)

Personnel Personnel per liner notes.

Musicians Harvey Danger: Aaron Huffman – Bass, guitar, design Jeff J. Lin – Guitar, piano, string and horn arrangements Sean Nelson – vocals Michael Welke – drums Additional musicians: Rachel Bowman – Backing vocals Jacob Hoffman – Backing vocals, French horn John Roderick – Guitar Greg Powers – Trombone Steve Creswell – Viola Phil Peterson – Cello

Production John Goodmanson – Production, engineering, mixing Steve Fisk – Production, engineering, mixing, ARP Justin Armstrong – Assistant engineering Scotty Crane – Assistant engineering Greg Calbi – Mastering Ed Brooks – Mastering YTJE – Artwork Ryan Schierling – Photography Erik Speckman – Encoding and IT

Release history +Release history for Little by Little...RegionDateLabelFormatRef.United StatesSeptember 13, 2005Phonographic Records (Phono 02)2xCDVariousSeptember 20, 2005Self-released (Harvey Danger's website)BitTorrentSeptember 27, 2005DDUnited StatesApril 1, 2006Skrocki Records (SKR007)LPJuly 25, 2006Kill Rock Stars (KRS471)2xCD

References

External links Harvey Danger's official site, including a Studio diary