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Mistakes make you learn.
How many times have you heard this phrase? Today it's my turn to repeat it to you: mistakes make you learn. What could be more wrong than lying on the couch, lazy, with the remote in hand flipping through TV channels aimlessly? Nothing. And yet... and yet you might accidentally end up on "Italia's Got Talent" right during the presentation of a strange character named Benjamin Clementine: tall, handsome, black, young (26 years), born in London, raised in Paris, of Ghanaian origin. He sits at the grand piano and throws, like pearls to swine, a pop-like hit titled "London" where his voice and fingers enchant, leaving me dumbfounded and amazed. "What could it be? He must have done well! The rest of the album will be awful!" I say to myself. I'm intrigued, I dig deeper.
In a short time, I grab "At Least For Now", released in January 2015, with a very rigorous blue cover on which Benjamin seems to reach for a red monolith (a door to something?) of Kubrickian memory. I should never have done it! I get trapped in his music like a lover tied to the bed with handcuffs. It's a deep pleasure, he manages to touch all my strings (let’s not exaggerate, not all!), he caresses my soul (only the soul, mind you!), he stirs my emotions. I'm his, damn it!
Eleven tracks, each more captivating than the last, a couple of slight falls into the simple-simple ballads "The People and I" and "Gone", not because they are bad but because the others are extraordinary. His black voice fades into the thousand colors of the rainbow, the piano is never trivial, every moment illuminates a different view of the tranquil and nocturnal Parisian landscape. The strings are never just for show, but they set the stage for emotions to grow. And then there are tracks like "Cornerstone", the milestone "Condolence", the ride "Nemesis" that exude an aura of beauty worthy of the best Botticelli.
Romantic album, modern in the down-tempo of "Winston Churchill's Boy", saturated with sensations like James Blake but without the help of electronics, clean and refined, a sum of his first two EPs ("Cornerstone" and "Glorious You") and some unreleased tracks. An album that reaches out to the general public and even to the more chic and snobbish jazz world for the freedom of piano execution but, above all, in the wonderful irregularity and frenzy of the voice (listen to "Then I Heard A Bachelor's Cry").
Ugly, dirty, and rough rockers.....have mercy on me.
Adios...
Tracklist and Samples
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Other reviews
By federico"benny"
If Nina Simone had been born a man, her debut would most likely sound exactly like this.
Benjamin Clementine's voice is one of the most beautiful I've heard in recent years, delivering spine-tingling performances without resorting to virtuosity for its own sake.
