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Ben Lee - Awake Is The New Sleep
- In his mid-twenties, Ben Lee is already something of a recording veteran. With this latest contribution to his catalogue, Awake Is The New Asleep, Lee crafts what appears to be a collection of thoughts written in a journal late at night set to bass lines, and recorded in a somnolent state closer to dreamland than reality.
The result is an intimate record you will most likely not find yourself uploading to your new Nano to work out to, unless of course you feel like laying down on the mat to do your sit-up routine just to ultimately lay there ruminating on the state of your life and accomplishments; not very effective for post holiday workout weight loss.
There are two types of "intimate" records as far as I can ascertain. The first is subtle yet engaging, melodic yet restrained, beautiful yet somehow emotionally aggressive (Natalie Merchant's disarming Ophelia is a good example). The second is just subtle, melodic and beautiful, with nowhere to go once you press play (Natalie Merchant's Motherland)... in other words, Canadian.
Some of the tracks on this disc ("Close I've Come", "Ache For You"), achieve the former, proving Lee's exceptional songwriting talent. Unfortunately, they're unbalanced by too many other tracks that are just... subtle ("I'm Willing"). It doesn't help that his vocals almost never stray from his major third safety zone (his vocals tend to stay within a major third of the dominant key), and that his voice seems to be accompanying his guitar, more than the other way around. As a result, and except for the gem that is "Catch My Disease", after awhile you don't feel so much intimate as you do claustrophobic.
Overall, this album would benefit from running about two or three tracks shorter. As his producer, it falls within Brad Wood's purview to crack the whip and cut the fat (like an editor would do to, say, a mixed metaphor). I can't really fault Lee for wanting to submit all of these fourteen tracks. As an artist, it's his goal to communicate to an audience, and a good artist can say a lot of things, in a lot of different ways. Yet, much of the time the "less is more" maxim is forgotten, and that's where the producer comes in to crack the whip.
With a more balanced album, the "subtler" tracks would hold more weight, and the more pulsing tracks wouldn't get as lost. I respect Lee wanting to communicate and share his art, but this album needs to lose a little post-holiday weight.
Reviewer: David Fallo
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Reviewer's Rating: 8
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 19-Jan-2006
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