Oh Fortune is the third album by Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 singer-songwriter Dan Mangan

Dan Mangan

Daniel Mangan is a Canadian indie folk-rock singer-songwriter.-Early life:Mangan was born in Smithers, British Columbia. His family moved a fair amount, residing in both the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia - and primarily in his current home town of Vancouver...

, released on September 27, 2011 on the Arts & Crafts

Arts & Crafts

Arts & Crafts may refer to:* Arts and Crafts Movement, an aesthetic movement* Arts and crafts, activities related to making things with one's own hands and skill* "Arts & Crafts", a song by Red Light Company...

 label. The album debuted on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 Canadian Albums Chart the week of October 15, 2011, at number nine.

The album is the follow-up to 2009's Nice, Nice, Very Nice

Nice, Nice, Very Nice

Nice, Nice, Very Nice is the second album by Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Mangan, released on August 11, 2009.The album was a shortlisted nominee for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize.-Track listing:...

, which was short-listed for the Polaris Prize. In contrast to its predecessor's sparse acoustic guitar, Oh Fortune relies more often on fuller orchestral arrangements, described by Now Magazine

NOW (magazine)

Now is a free weekly newspaper in Toronto, Canada. It was first printed on September 10, 1981 by Michael Hollett and Alice Klein. Now is an alternative weekly mixing arts and entertainment news with political coverage....

s Carla Gillis as "expansive, epic orchestral indie rock". It has also been described as having a darker emotional and lyrical tone, comparable to its namesake poem "O Fortuna

O Fortuna

"O Fortuna" is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the thirteenth century, part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana. It is a complaint about fate, and Fortuna, a goddess in Roman mythology and personification of luck....

", without becoming too grim. David Berry of the National Post

National Post

The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...

 describes the album's theme as "a kind of bald appraisal of the situation that packs it full of so much more — meaning, weight, beauty, humour — than your typical singer-songwriter’s over-emotive pigeonholing".

The album debuted at #10 in Canada.

Track listing

All songs composed by Dan Mangan

Reception

Oh Fortune has received mostly positive reviews. Francois Marchand of The Vancouver Sun

The Vancouver Sun

The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...

 gave the album four and a half out of five stars, claiming that "sonically, Oh Fortune shines". All Music

All Music

All Music was an Italian free-to-air television station which mainly broadcast music videos and music programs. Originally called Rete A, the name was changed to Rete A - All Music , and for a brief period was affiliated before with MTV Italy and after with VIVA.-History:In late 2004 the former...

's Andrew Leahy awarded the album three out of five stars, calling it the "most ornate thing [Mangan]'s ever done" and comparing it to The Swell Season

The Swell Season

The Swell Season is a folk rock duo formed by Irish musician Glen Hansard and Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová. "The Swell Season" name is derived from Hansard's favourite novel by Josef Škvorecký from 1975 bearing the same title...

. Now Magazine also gave Oh Fortune three out of five stars, saying that Mangan "has leapt ahead not one or two steps, but three or four."