The album opens with a
beautiful and moving song, “Absolutely Emily.” I love his voice, which has a
bit of a John Prine thing happening, working to pull us in immediately. It is a
voice that embodies honesty and experience and humanity and love. Here is a
taste of the lyrics: “Do you miss me,
Emily?/I spend the nights with you in my dreams/The days are getting colder/But
we’ll be warm before long/I promise, Emily.” On this track, Ben is joined
by Luke Miller, Cory Tramontelli and Ben Thomas. The song’s last lines are
particularly appealing these days: “We’ll
live high on a hilltop/We’ll never go to town/I promise, Emily.” “Absolutely
Emily” is followed by another gorgeous and sad song, “Wasting Gas,” about a man
who is out of work and can’t bear to tell his wife. Check out these lines: “She fixes me lunch and kisses me goodbye/And
I drive around, but I’m going nowhere.” Then toward the end of song, there
is some lonesome, gorgeous, emotional work on harmonica. This song just gets
better and better. Interestingly, it too mentions Emily. Ben plays all the
instruments on this track, including glockenspiel.
“Working For A Living” has more
energy, like a tightly wound country song ready to explode. It is more than a
minute before it bursts through to another level. “I’m working for a living and it’s turning me cold.” The harmonica
work is interesting here, sounding almost frozen like that line, wailing from a
distance. And the percussion has a raw, unpolished sound. “Sir, don’t make me look like a loser in my baby’s eyes/I never used to
be so cold and cruel.” Oh man, this is a powerful song. Ben plays all the
instruments on this one. He then returns to a more classical folk sound with “I
Just Can’t Seem To Get Ahead.” The first lines are ones that many people will
certainly be able to relate to: “Working
a job that I can’t stand/For less than I’m worth, but all that I can command.”
I also appreciate this line: “Burying my
dreams, drowning in debt.” This track features the band backing him. Most
of them also perform on the next track, “The Last Coast.” This one packs a
punch, with lines like “If I never see
those people again, I won’t shed a tear” and “I’d rather be lost out there than lost at home/At least I’ll be lonely in
a different place.” Yes, this is another powerful number. It kicks in,
though remains largely folk. Here he breaks loose vocally too, and we want to
shout along with him. This is a fucking great track.
“The Thief” is another song
about struggling financially, featuring a man trying to support his family but
unable to secure honest work, and so he turns to other means. Of course you
feel for him as he tells us: “So I take
unnecessary things/From those who can afford/To lose their necklaces and rings.”
I like Luke Miller’s work on organ. “I
got two kids and a wife/Who deserve a decent life/So I do what I’ve got to do.”
That’s followed by “Central Valley,” which also deals with financial stress and
turning to thievery. It is almost the continuation of the story from the
previous song, as the man has now been caught. “I needed the money more than the man I took it from/I didn’t mean to
hurt no one/So what’s going to happen, mister, to my wife and son/When I go to
prison.” This track also contains a reference to The Grapes Of Wrath.
“Too Dark To Tell” makes me
think of John Prine right at the start, that guitar work at the very beginning
reminding me of “In Spite Of Ourselves.” Here are the song’s opening lines,
which I imagine will speak to a lot of folks: “In this dark night it’s too hard for me to say now/If the rays of hope
will shine again someday/And if I might be spared as the tempest starts to
swell/At this point it’s just too dark to tell.” This song also includes a
play on that famous line from “Amazing Grace”: “I once was found but now again I’m lost,” which is quite effective.
This one is performed solo by Ben Bostick, and he offers some really good work
on guitar. Interestingly, the song offers another meaning of its title with the
line “But some tales are just too dark to
tell.” That’s followed by “Untroubled
Mind,” in which Ben sings “I’ve seen the
darkest hell when I looked into myself.” What a line! This song feels like
it could be about the same sort of character who is now imprisoned and facing
execution. “I’ve done things you can’t
forgive.” This is an album you need to listen to straight through. No
downloading a track or two, for that is not the way to appreciate these songs.
They seem to build, one track on another, like chapters in a novel. And that
takes us to “If I Were In A Novel,” the album’s final song. “If I were in a novel/I wouldn’t be the
hero/I wouldn’t have a grand romance.” Ben Bostick plays all the
instruments on this one. “If I were in a
movie, I’d have no lines to say/I’d be out of focus/In the distance, on the
edge of frame.” These lines are depressingly honest and real. They remind
me of something Ken Kesey once said: “Always
stay in your own movie.” Don’t allow yourself to fade into the background
of someone else’s story, for you are responsible for your own life. The end of this track is powerful. There is a
pause that feels like the end, and then the last lines are delivered a
cappella, almost as spoken word, the instruments gone now, the rest of the world
having disappeared as he sings of the void. Wow. What an album. This is a disc
you appreciate more and more as it goes on.
CD Track List
- Absolutely Emily
- Wasting Gas
- Working For A Living
- I Just Can’t Seem To Get Ahead
- The Last Coast
- The Thief
- Central Valley
- Too Dark To Tell
- Untroubled Mind
- If I Were In A Novel
Among The Faceless Crowd is scheduled to be released on April 24,
2020.
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