The Ben Hall-fronted project Mr Ben and The Bens have produced one of the loveliest records you're likely going to hear as the world falls out apart in this plague-year. In fact, the tunes here strike such a plaintive, pretty note that one is apt to cry when hearing some of this, and laugh (as intended) at other clever passages. Count that as the short version of this rave review of Life Drawing out today via Bella Union.
If "Watering Can" sounds a good deal like the best from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, "Beast in the House" recalls Belle & Sebastian circa their affiliation with producer Trevor Horn. Mind you, nothing on Life Drawing is overdone, but that there are moments that are more withdraw and others that are a good deal cheekier (as the Brits would say). "How Do You Do" has a keyboard hook that made me think of "Three and Nine" by Roxy Music, even as the vocals and delivery seemed to suggest a happier version of The Clientele, while the elegant "Walking to an Open Sky" is all pep and optimism.
Mr Ben and The Bens very carefully do not let things get too precious, thus avoiding that trap that befall earlier acts that attempted this sort of thing like Ooberman. No, the arrangements are robust enough, and the playing vigorous all around that the tunes here seem less fey and more sun-dappled. Hall's delivery invites some faint comparisons to Yanks Doug Martsch and Daniel Johnston, oddly enough, but the songs here are an entirely more direct form of modern indie-pop. If "The Windle on Spittlehill", for example, casually nods in the direction of The 6ths, that famous Magnetic Fields spin-off project, the delivery renders this less arch and less art-y, this despite a spoken-word bit in it, even as "Danny" revs things up with enough energy as to place at least this taste of Mr Ben and The Bens next to early numbers from Super Furry Animals and Supergrass. Regardless of all that, this whole record is a delight, full of scattershot genius and genuine charm of the kind that I've not heard in decades really, outside Spinning Coin maybe.
Life Drawing is out today via Bella Union.
More details on Mr Ben and The Bens via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Bella Union]