Artist: Harper, Ben
Label: Virgin Records
Released: 2011
Length: 49:55
Rating: 4.5/5
The latest outing from American solo singer, musician and arranger Ben Harper keeps up the high pedigree of his studio output, every release of which carries the unmistakable stamp of what is by now a recognizable standard of Harper’s artistic expression. “Give Till It’s Gone” is once again a colorfully woven macramé, held together by a rich mix of indie rock, blues rock, soul and funk threads.
For the new album Ben Harper has stuck with his tried-and-tested trio of backing musicians, who went by the name Relentless 7 on the previous album, “White Lies in Dark Times” (2009). The new record, though, offers a few good arguments for dropping the Relentless 7 tag, because this time around we’re looking at a distinctly personal, confessional Ben Harper album.
The heart of the album revolves around the latest battle of the sexes, which Harper has just come through the storm of. Behind him lie the images of a battered, exhausted and ruined landscape, the wreckage of a failed marriage to film actress Laura Dern. Ahead of him a deep emptiness has opened up, one in which he’s searching for footholds to rebuild himself and start a new life.
Every fight with a woman brings disappointment, anger, sadness; you call yourself a total fool more than once, you take on the guilt, and you’re swamped with negative feelings and fruitless thoughts that get you nowhere, or worse, drag you even deeper into the pit if you’re weak. But you have to shake all of that out of your system so you can free yourself from the shackles, forgive yourself and everyone involved, and move higher up your path of personal growth, toward emotional and spiritual maturity. Ben Harper’s new album is, then, a collection of songs reflecting on Harper’s most recent bitter life experience. The album title says it all. “Give Till It’s Gone” could be read as giving yourself completely in the name of love until absolutely everything disappears. The whole point of the exercise, even. Of course it’s not all black, and throughout the album Harper is aware that there’s a way out of the dark pit. Lyrically, this is an incredibly rich record, and for plenty of listeners it’ll be a tougher nut to crack, while for others it adds an extra thrill to discovering the expressive power of Harper’s musical character and genius.
The languid opening of the album with Don’t Give Up On Me Now is a manifesto of an outstanding indie rock song, packed with all the songwriting brilliance of seasoned arranging. A disillusioned vocal, wandering in the dark and searching for itself, is accompanied by colorful collages of warm, organic liveliness. No pretension, just full of feeling and devotion. The harmony is stunning. It’s not only Harper’s heart that weeps here, the instruments weep too. In the chorus Harper, with his subtle vocal, is so naked, direct, fragile and vulnerable that you instantly feel the immense pain the artist poured into the song. Things get downright eerily real in I Will Not Be Broken, a personal, confessional folk number that in the verses sounds almost darkly Nick Cave-like. The third track, Rock N’ Roll Is Free, lifts the gloomy opening of the album, with a breath of Neil Young charisma in its jangly guitar sound. That is, until we reach the bitter ballad Feel Love, where the vocal expression of delicately delivered emotion works at full strength, and the verses get under the listener’s skin all too convincingly. A similar mood follows in another calmer moment of the album, the lovely number Pray That Our Love Sees The Dawn, infused with country melody and deepened only by gentle brushes on the drums. It’s the kind of melody in which even a giant like Bruce Springsteen would feel intoxicatingly at home, only this time Harper found even better company in the form of vocal duets with American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. An exceptional singer-songwriter moment stamped with Harper’s unique art!
A furious indie rock attack follows in Clearly Severly, which sounds so trendy that even the devalued corporate spirit of MTV-ness would swallow it, in all its feeble-minded narrowness. It’s worth noting that the new album doesn’t have quite as raw a guitar sound as its predecessor. It’s precisely this greater control over the guitar sound that makes the contrasts all the more intense: the booming roll of the snare, the clever, insightful buddying-up of the fat bass kick (in the room the main melodic lines leave it), and the warm, organic ring of the guitars. Get There From Here confirms it, fading out at the end into an almost psychedelic extension that stretches the sonic collages through the sensual instrumental conversation of the four basic building blocks.
Even though Ben’s vocal delivery constantly reflects the musicians’ innate feel for soul improvisation, which begs to be worked into blues moments, this time Harper carefully steers a middle course and doesn’t push every song into a blues mold at all costs. Not with the vocal, not with the lead lines. A real touch of blues eroticism only turns up near the end in the excellent Waiting For The Sign, which Harper made sure to season with a juicy smear of slide guitar in the background and “honky tonk” piano accompaniment. Right after it, the slide guitar gets even noisier in the hard-hitting blues rock number Dirty Little Lover, which makes no secret of the dark mission of delta blues and Harper’s great love for the work of Robert Johnson. Johnson’s music has inspired Harper to explore slide guitar since he was a kid. Dirty Little Lover should also appeal to fans of the new blues rock supergroup Black Country Communion, as in the chorus Harper gets downright cheekily close to the vocal approach of Glenn Hughes.
And so we don’t forget the core message of Harper’s new album, the musician saved one more excellent indie rock gem for the end, a wonderfully witty blend of blues, pop basics and alternative rock. The vocal in the chorus is beastly furious, deliberately mangled through distortion, which only deepens the dramatic content of the song’s message. On this track Harper really held nothing back in his vocal delivery. And that’s exactly the biggest charm of his work, and the new album is no exception. A genuine pouring of what the heart feels into musical language, as dictated only by the unique artistic essence of Harper’s character.
With this new release Ben Harper has given the masses an exceptionally mature album of his musical career, and its strength lies not only in the brilliant arranging, with its succinct, insightful lead phrases. The strength of “Give Till It’s Gone” also lies in the brilliance with which the emotions are interpreted. They genuinely land, keep teasing with their authenticity, and keep the everyday consumer of Harper’s musical rhetoric busy with messages. The musicians don’t stand out instrumentally at a single point on the album. The songs can’t carry any pretentious instrumentation and have not a shred of room for experimental escapes. They coexist in outstanding coherence, tuned in to each other, and follow the lead of bringing Harper’s vocal emotions to life. The strength of the instrumentation lies precisely in the refined dosing of the songs with short, succinct musical solutions that give the basic framework of each track just the right amount of juicy filling, lively dynamics and mature insight.
On the new album Ben Harper has served up a maturely polished medley of expressive variety, held together by the artist’s unique touch and his homegrown arranging streak. It’s the well-oiled embodiment of the standards set on Harper’s past albums, now manifesting as a mature upgrade. On the new album Harper keeps up his exceptional expressive flexibility, breadth, creative freshness and inspiration, proof that the musician keeps evolving and maturing artistically. That’s thanks to his great ability to bring the artist’s most intimate feelings to life in a way that’s universally understandable and accessible to the masses. Ben Harper is hardly going to let you any closer into his intimate world than this. It’s the most any artist can offer you, which is why “Give TIll It’s Gone” is a very special album that will keep you hooked for a long time to come.
Lineup
Ben Harper – vocals, slide guitar
Jason Mozersky – guitar
Jesse Ingalis – bass guitar
Jordan Richardson – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Ringo Starr – drums on tracks 6 and 7
Jackson Browne – vocals on track 8
Production
Danny Kalb
Track list
1. Don’t Give Up On Me Now
2. I Will Not Be Broken
3. Rock N’ Roll Is Free
4. Feel Love
5. Clearly Severely
6. Spilling Faith
7. Get There From Here
8. Pray That Our Love Sees The Dawn
9. Waiting On A Sign
10. Dirty Little Lover
11. Do It For You, Do It For Us
