Search - Ben Christophers :: Spoonface

More beauty from the master

12/25/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I awaited this albums release with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. I was excited as I longed to hear more of this artists material, following hard on the heels of the wonderous 'My beautiful demon' and an element of trepidation due to being apprehensive that it may well be a flat follow up to such an impressive debut.I need not have worried, although quite different from his first album 'Spoonface' is an admirable addition to the Christophers back catalogue.If anything the album is a bit of a grower and some folk won't take to it right away but it can creep up on you, trust me it's worth it.The only thing that i wasn't entirley happy with was the way his voice was messed about with at times, the guys voice is phenomenal in it's own right, no need for distortion and so on.However that is merely a blimp on an otherwise beautiful horizon.Buy it, you won't be dissappointed"

Desert Island Top 10

08/27/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard Ben as he opened for Tori Amos. He really blew me away, and since buying this album, (and his first album "my beautiful demon, also great), I have not been disappointed. This album has worked it's way into my desert island top 10, and it's really one of my favorite albums. The second track "the stream", is my absolute fav. song. If it helps, I'm a music major, and songwriter myself. SOme of my other favs. are Tori, Jewel, Greg Brown, Radiohead, white stripes.... So if your tastes are eclectic and into REAL music, (not the pop pseudo-music), you'll love this album."

Experimental New Acoustic Movement!

Ian Creamer | Dublin,Ireland | 01/29/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"2,001 will have to be remebered over in this part of the world as the year of the sensitive male singer-songwriter.The so-called New Acoustic Movement has already seen splendid albums by David Kitt,Matthew Jay,Turin Brakes,Ed Harcourt and Tom McRae-you know Elliot Smith has a lot to answer for.By the time I'd got to,listen to this c.d. from Ben Christophers I have to say I'd grown a little tired of this particular genre.Not that it's a bad album-it isn't.Maybe if this album had come out first I'd have been raving about it more,but unfortunately it's the last in a long list. This album does differ in a few areas when compared to the other ones I listed earlier.The similarities are that Christophers is a multi-instrumentalist-and a very talented one at that.Some of his arrangements are excellent.His lyrics are on the side of sensitive melancholia.The sounds and influences stretch to the standard Elliot Smith and of course Jeff Buckley's falsetto.There are lots of acoustic moments on the c.d.Finally it's another c.d. that is perfectly suited for the late night acoustic chill out. There are differences also.Firstly he isn't totally obsessed with acoustic sounds.He uses an array of drum machines,he uses plenty of different types of keyboards.There maybe no electric guitar riffs to remember but the sound isn't wimpy by any means.Many tracks have a meaty bass and synth soundtrack to them.He also tends to play around with the vocals a great deal.Distorted vocals a'la Radiohead can be heard on tracks like The Stream and to a lesser extent on other tracks like "Losing Myself".Some of his arrangements are very stark,atmospheric and almost industrial.The track "Songbird Scrapes The Sky" has a Japan feel to the verses in the way it sounds so minimalist,before a glorious more convetional chorus.In fact I think Christophers experiments with sound way more then his N.A.M. alliesThis makes the album fairly interesting.It's the sort of album that doesn't have immediate accessibility.The many facets of tracks like Losing Myself really reward repeated listens.It drifts from plain acoustic to having vast amount of strange effects going on in the background.All the tracks are short and to the point,he doesn't go in for any epic tracks.So the whole album breezes by in less then 40 mins. Christophers' album was one of the best received by British music crtics this year.It managed to find it's way onto nearly every magazine's and newspaper's best of the year list.It is a good album and for those of you who haven't had their fill of this music this year-I'd say you'd enjoy it thoroughly."