dpjohansen's Full Review: My Beautiful Demon by Ben Christophers
During the late 90s / Early 2000s there was a plethora of young singer / songwriters that emerged following the success of the delightful Elliott Smith. There was a certain criteria that had to be upheld. 1. Must own acoustic guitar. 2. Must write moody songs. 3. Must then sing moody songs with some degree of folky twee abandon 4. "I'm a one-man show! And gosh ain't my music pretty?". Aye, moodily pretty the majority of it was, too. Most of these artists were excellent, like Ed Harcourt, Tom McRae, Badly Drawn Boy and Matthew Jay (ooh that rhymed). Though one or two made it difficult for me not to want to scrape my ears out with a serrated instrument.
Debuting in 1999, Ben Christophers, who hails from Wolverhampton in the UK, made his mark on the British indie music scene with this strange little album. Christophers seemed to come out of nowhere, and as far as I know, had only performed shows beneath a pizza restaurant before being snapped up by Virgin's subsidiary label, V2. The album itself does its utmost to mix acoustic folk with indie roots, together with a mild, downbeat, synthesiser and piano pop element. Though it has to be said, it failed to really make that much of an impression on me.
"My Beautiful Demon" (1999 V2)
Produced by;
David Kosten
One of the interesting qualities Ben Christophers has is his voice. It's youthful and quiet, with a sort of whimsical lisp. One that could have been altogether more appealing given the right song structure, ie; melodic and cohesive. As it stands, on this album it can be mildly irritating in places
The eerie sparseness of opening track, "My Beautiful Demon", makes it a pleasant enough song. I'd just like to add at this point, that for much of the album, Christophers mixes acoustic instruments along with electronic pianos. He also employs many strange, fiddly synthesised space-age noises in random places. All of that can be found on this track, but what I do like about this one, is the inclusion of a rather pretty choral harmony, where Christophers' voice begins to soar about halfway through. It's certainly one of the album's better tracks, with the occasional vocal melodic sweep, and the lovely violin making it pretty enough to enjoy. What spoils "Give Me Everything" is an excess of those aforementioned random, fiddly space-age noises, I find them both unnecessary and intrusive. Not only that, the obscure mixture of disjointed sounds, which switch from quiet to loud, to downright hideous din, makes me slightly nauseous. I feel like someone's slapped me upside the head too hard, there's a ringing in my ears and I've gone cross-eyed and starry. Also, if I didn't have the lyrics to hand, I'd be struggling to understand what he's singing. His voice becomes a bit garbled amidst the chaos of noise. Looking at the lyrics, however, yeah I'm still none the wiser as to what the frill the song is about;
Maybe we're all misfits,
lifted uneasy from it,
Real life swallowed you up whole,
bring down all the shade,
and give me everything real,
like swallowed you up whole
[scratches head.. quickly moves on]
The beautiful strings and haunting guitar that begin "Before the Winter Parade" are welcome and pleasing. Even Christophers sings quite delicately, his voice regaining some melodic composure. Slow and sparse it meanders on, almost chillingly. But Argh! What gives with the strange parpy noises again? Like parps of any description, strange or otherwise, these noises are a real mood killer. The strangeness of the eclectic "Stay" puts me in two different frames of mind. On the one hand, its gentle beauty in places appeals to me, on the other hand, the recklessness and clatter that rears its head occasionally sort of repulses me. The same applies to the different levels of vocals Christophers employs. One part sweet and frail, one part muffled and forced. Strange parpesque spacey noises on this one? You betcha. The key is keeping these strange noises minimal (if one MUST use them), and thankfully, "It's Been a Beautiful Day" does that. It's a simple song, but excessively moody and almost gothically poetic. The gorgeous strings again appear, this time they rise and engulf the song making it picturesque. A lovely vocal performance, with pretty lyrics;
Autumn leaves pave the park,
but still you remember
the colours of summer's green.
Your sweetest heart
seems so unaffected by things that kill
And a resounding "YAY!" for minimalist acoustic ballads! That's what "Sunday" is. Though rather than lamenting, it comes off as a bit playful and more than a touch folky. You could argue that "Healer" is just as acoustically competent as its predecessor, though this one is slightly more rock fuelled. Plus, it is a touch whiny in places, not to mention the inclusion of several "ooooeeeeoooo" programmed noises that have me expecting Captain Kirk to appear at any moment. However, it's a likeable song that has some elements of musical focus. The bloody awful beginning to "Remote Control" could potentially have you reaching for the skip button, but following the industrial clatter, namely, when the guitars kick in, comes a decent enough song. Though a little rough around the edges, it's thick with layers and layers of interesting instrumentation. Christophers' voice soars majestically, giving way to quiet towards the end. The transgression is so, that I almost think I've gone deaf as it finishes.
The album's final two songs, "Always" and "Skyscraper", are pleasant enough slow numbers. The former being piano led, the latter more acoustic guitar. There's very little that's exciting about either of them, but when compared to what's gone by, their quiet and miserable sounding simplicity is extremely welcome. Of the two, I prefer "Always"... because it's less than 2 minutes long. Ooh! Actually, not just that, it does cater for my moody piano music tendencies very capably.
Like razor blades in my mind, bye bye demons
I think I've managed to give this album more credibility than it probably has. You see, the songs on it have a lot of potential, but somehow often seem to be spoiled by an excess of unnecessary instrumentation and lack of any distinct, cohesive structure. I'm all for experimentation, and am open to something new, as long as it's interesting. But with this album, it's occasionally like Portishead covering Elliott Smith songs, which would be interesting in theory, but a whopping no-no in reality. The quirky thing is, rather than being a collection of good and bad songs, it's more a collection of songs that have good and bad elements. They mostly mix quiet, acoustic folky tendencies, with occasional pianos, synthesisers and capable string sections strewn here and there. Mixed into that, there's a lot of obnoxious din and fuzzy technology, lest we not forget space type parp and "oooeeeeooo" noises.
Another thing that lets this album down, is Christophers' voice. Whilst being distinctive, it can also be annoying, especially when he sounds muffled. On occasion he also sounds a little lost, but that could be attributed to many songs here lacking in melody and charm. The weird cut-up lyrics structure doesn't help, either. That said, it does have moments of rare beauty, especially when he climbs to those higher notes. It's like the old adage; when he's good, he's very, very good, but when he's bad, he's horrid.
Whilst I do find some things to enjoy about this album, such as the songs "My Beautiful Demon", "It's Been a Beautiful Day" and "Sunday", and elements of several others, there is also a lot that irritates me. Perhaps it's a little too creative, incorporating nonsense that would be best left in an entirely different genre. It relies far too heavily on technologically enhanced instrumentation, when really, it should have just stuck to its folksy, acoustic roots. This album didn't enamour me enough to pursue Christophers' career. I neglected to buy either 2001's "Spoonface", or 2004's "The Spaces in between", since I felt this debut, whilst occasionally interesting, occasionally sweet, was far too pretentious, and was in danger of disappearing entirely up its own ärse.
If you're a fan of creatively beautiful singer / songwriters of this ilk, you'd be better picking up albums by the likes of Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley, Magnet or Ed Harcourt. I just can't bring myself to recommend this album by Ben Christophers. Sorry, Ben.
Cheers.
Overall: 2.8 stars
Tracks: My Beautiful Demon / Give Me Everything / Before the Winter Parade / Stay / It's Been a Beautiful Day / Sunday / Healer / Remote Control / Always / Skyscraper
All lyrics quoted copyright Ben Christophers.
Great Music to Play While: Thinking there could be Klingons on the starboard bow.
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