Search - Ben Taylor :: Deeper Than Gravity

He's got his Dad's vocal style and his Mom's rhythm

Steven I. Ramm | Phila, PA USA | 10/24/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I put this CD on, the last name on the cover didn't jump out at me right away. Not sure why. Then the first words of young Taylor came out of my speakers and I knew his dad had to be James. Heck, even his uncle Livingston sounds like James. But Ben has a personality all his own, getting lots of the rhythm structure from his mom, Carly Simon.



Taylor wrote two of the five songs on this "EP". Only "Lady Magic" has the James Taylor feel while the other "Digest" has just enough "hip hop" rhythm to let you know it's the 21st Century, yet the stripped down acoustic arrangement gives it a relaxed feeling. I thought I'd had enough of Macy Gray's "I Try", Taylor gives it new life. (On the final track, "Glory Box". Taylor shares vocals with Meredith Sheldon, who actually sounds not unlike Gray).



The one song that I think fails is the standard "You Belong To Me". Though written in the 1930s that song belongs to The Duprees. It really seems out of place.



But, heck, this is a sampler, more or less, and has a list price of less than six bucks. It's a good introduction to the next generation of Taylors.



Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic""

January Day

Lee Armstrong | Winterville, NC United States | 07/26/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ben Taylor's EP "Deep Gravity" starts with a live version of "Nothing I Can Do" from his excellent CD Another Run Around the Sun. This acoustic version was recorded at a radio station in Boise, Idaho. "I Try" is soft with its hook-filled chorus, Ben's hushed lead vocal and the lyric, "I believe that fate has brought us here; We should be together, girl." Ben's "Digest" is densely lyrically packed played with a soft acoustic guitar backing, "I've been forced to digest this wasteful emptiness; I'm supposed to laugh as if nothing's going on." Ben's version of "You Belong to Me" that Patsy Cline recorded brings out the lovely melody with a stark acoustic guitar backing. Ben's "Lady Magic" moves from folk to pop, "She was cool like a magical groove* on a January day." "Glory Box" by Portishead that even has a version by British singer John Martyn on his The Church with One Bell CD is a soft plaintive track as Meredith Sheldon joins Ben as he sings, "I just want to be your woman." "Deeper Than Gravity" is a soft EP. I've played his two full-length CDs so much that this is a welcome addition to the changer. Enjoy!



*lyric according to my ear! :)"