Wednesday, March 26, 2014

CASSETTE REVIEW: Benjamin Poole “Home Language” (4! Factorial Records)


                While I feel like I might say this a lot, it turns out in reality I really don’t say it enough.   Probably 99.9% of people out there who think, “Hey, I can pick up an acoustic guitar, make some songs and it’ll be good” are delusional.   That rare, iota of people who actually do have the sound that has been made famous by many great predecessors is not quite given enough praise, so today I shall give praise to Benjamin Poole.

                More often than not, I write things off for sounding too much like Bob Dylan or my favorite EFS, but somehow on “Home Language”, Poole manages to bring out the qualities of both of the shall we say forefathers and do so without making me want to stab him in the face.  I stopped listening to music that looked like a bad cover band a long time ago, but if having to listen to a million Elliiot Smith wanna be’s to get to this Benjamin Poole tape was my mission then mission well spent.

                Aside from the cliché names, Benjamin Poole also brings out The Lyndsay Diaries and Dashboard Confessional on these songs, which is kind of funny because neither of those are really current anymore and as far as I know neither are releasing new music.  It’s just somewhat funny to me to think that at one time I was comparing other musicians with Dashboard Confessional while he was still playing music, yet now he’s more of a name of the past.  (Please ignore his new Dashboard & Sons band)

                There are some backing vocals and even a banjo, sure, but these five songs keep it to the point but also convey a big enough of a punch that they will make you want to listen to them on repeat.  I just don’t feel like I can stress enough how band artists try to do what Benjamin Poole is doing only they end up falling flat on their face whilst Poole remains a diamond in the rough.









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