Ben hopes for some shine from a TSJ fave…
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[4.86]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: So here’s the deal: Australian singer-songwriter Ben Lee decided to make an album about taking the Amazonian psychotropic brew Ayahausca. I know what you’re thinking, and yes this is just like that one time in Lost when Locke went on a vision quest to find Mr Eko and yes this is fairly trippy to listen to. “Mystical Death” (great title) moves between macabre drone intonations and a Spiritualized-esque hymnal riff, the latter half’s “let the light in” hook acting as the polar opposite to the unsettling sound of a woman cooing “duerme, mi hijo” (trans. “sleep, my son”). The song appears built to usher you out of darkness or to even coax the light out of further darkness. “Mystical Death” sounds as though it would like to shepherd you into another realm, making sense as the introduction to a thematic work but utterly befuddling as a commercial release. (To be fair, so was that episode of Lost.) The blooming spirituality makes for good music but a terrible single. Split the difference:
[6]
Anthony Easton: So close to being a hippie jam, but it’s well disciplined, and manages to work under a set of fairly tight parameters. I feel calm after this.
[6]
Alfred Soto: The 10cc-style harmonies embossed with electronic swirls encourage a heinous kind of thumbsucking.
[3]
Ian Mathers: On the lite prog rock album (coughflaminglipscough) this track must come from, I’m sure whatever comes after these five minutes of scene-setting is totally awesome. But as a single it’s a mess.
[2]
Edward Okulicz: The last thing I expected from the boy-wonder of Australian pop, hated and envied for his smug precocity, is for him to have turned into a bad Polyphonic Spree.
[3]
Brad Shoup: Two parts, maybe three: heavy breathing, a Pharrell impression, and a sun-gulping Coyne-style chorus. The first and third completely swamp the second. It’s dumb and it’s hopeful and a bit like a Caribou song.
[9]
Katherine St Asaph: Goddamnit, there probably is a market for new age remakes of Top 40. (At the far-flung teensy tip of the long tail, but a market.) Here’s Ben Lee kicking off the series with Meditation Made fun.
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