BEN HARPER – Lifeline – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: In The Colors - Fool For A Lonesome Train – Say You Will – Heart Of Matters
SOUNDBITE: “Like Marie Antoinette said to Louis XI, man - I think we’re going down/ Our chances are slim to none and I’m afraid Slim just left town”
RATING: 4.5/5
Ben Harper’s been popping out albums like some sort of crazy LP breeding machine in recent years - this is the third since autumn 2004. It was apparently recorded seventies-style at the end of a European tour using nothing but a tin-can and some double-sided sticky tape (or at least no ‘pro-tools’) in a Parisian garret or something. In seven days. It’s the stuff of legends and had this LP actually been done in the seventies it probably would have legendary status. As it is – it simply sounds a bit like lots of legendary albums that were made in the seventies. Just as well that it’s quite good then. Although technically brilliant and occasionally the producer of brilliant songs and albums, Harper also periodically commits the schoolboy errors of producing either overlong albums Both Sides of The Gun, or dreary folk rock ballads Welcome to The Cruel World, or both - Welcome to The Cruel World again. This time around he manages to keep it short at 41 minutes, restrains himself from excesses of rootsy-dirgery and comes up with probably the most consistent album he’s ever done. He also belts out some classically preposterous lyrics that ought to have been written in the seventies – see SOUNDBITE above. What you don’t get is the variety of styles that have characterised previous albums like Burn To Shine and the brilliant Diamonds On The Inside - not necessarily a bad thing. Basically the recipe is simple – this is a tight and consistent collection of 11 slices of tuneful, soulful acoustic rock from the mellow - Lifeline - to the quite lively - Say You Will. It would be tempting to say Harper was hitching a ride on the Jack Johnson/ Donovan Frankenreiter acoustic steamroller if it weren’t for the fact that the opposite were true and this thought certainly crosses my mind when I hear a lyric like “There’s always someone younger/ someone with more hunger”. There’s no doubt though, this will certainly appeal to recent fans of the other two artists who haven’t yet checked him out. What may be less welcome is the fact that this album is safe enough that it may also catch the ear of those who feel that James C**t is worth listening to. So on the down side you may eventually be forced to hear this at weddings, funerals, and walking past a fucking Starbucks while smug middle-class Gap-clad couples hum along. But don’t let that put you off –this is quality.
Out now.
RELATED LINKS
Listen to Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals - Lifeline
Ben Harper - Myspace
www.benharper.net
Read Monkeyboxing review of Both Sides Of The Gun
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