This marks Ben's debut on Ruffhouse. From the opening song, Ben's vocal style is reminiscent of other veteran songwriters like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits - course with limited range. But, like these performers, his strength lies not in his delivery but his content. I would peg this album as part of the resurgence in folk and folk/rock that's sprung up in the past couple of years.
The album begins with "You," a pointed look at a failed relationship that reminded me, stylistically, of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," and "Desolation Row." Failed because the parties involved, as Ben says, "...slipped right out of fashion" - as if love's an accessory you discard when you get bored with it. Then he pokes fun at superstition and warped belief systems in "Astral Freak," where he describes himself (rather tongue in cheek), "Cause I'm a studied astral freak/My superstition runs so deep/It's a Taurean malfunction/Somewhere on the zodiac/I just got lost and I can't get back/Point me in the right direction."
He apparently got infected with the "spiritual virus" by the lover he discusses in the next song, "Light of Love." But he seems to recognize the objects of his searching keep turning out tarnished as he writes, "I wasn't looking for a reborn spirit/And I wasn't questioning the stars above/I think I'll only know it when I'm in it/I was just searching for the light of love."
Ben's songs aren't all about flaky relationships and misguided beliefs, however. He also writes about the lies of politicians, especially the questionable New World Order, in "Meet the Press," gives Wilbur's take on the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk in "Soar," and pays tribute to the pain and suffering of common, simple people, murdered by men fighting idealistic wars in "Here in the Mountain."
Oh yeah, he also bitches (quite wittily) in "Help Myself" about being addicted to cigarettes, using the same excuse as most smokers I know, "I can't help myself!"
Ben points a barbed pen and fine sense of melody at things in the world that piss him off, including himself. But, he balances his outrage with sympathetic lyrics for ideas and acts he believes are noble. In this repect he keeps the traditions of singer-songwriters alive and well. And he does it by being a unique link in a long chain.
