Benji Hughes
(New West)
Looking like Leon Russell’s understudy circa the “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” tour, singing in a voice pitched halfway between Bono and Rufus Wainwright (with all the flamboyance that description implies), and crafting exquisite pop nuggets that, sonically speaking, bring to mind at various points Beck, Brian Wilson and the Flaming Lips, Charlotte’s Benji Hughes is nothing if not audacious. How else would you describe a newcomer who debuts with a sprawling two-CD, 25-song album?
Well, he’s not exactly a newcomer. Hughes, along with bandmate Jonathan Wilson, previously pulled duties in the nineties in Muscadine, releasing records on the Sire label, so he probably knows a thing or two about the music biz, including knowing that critics will be calling him “audacious.”
A Love Extreme lives up to its title, though. From insta-alterna anthems like the Weezerish, undulatingly irresistible “Tight Tee Shirt” (so summery you pick up a tan just listening to it; wait for it to turn up in ads and movies) and strummy slacker ode “Waiting For An Invitation” (Jack Johnson, watch your back), to a wall-of-sound show tune, “Even If,” that wouldn’t be out of place on Smile and the yearning, lo-fi slab of minimalist pop that is “So Well,” Hughes covers more ground on one album that most artists do in ten.
As with Robert Pollard or Ryan Adams, even the most gifted über-prolific songwriter can use an editor sometimes, and Hughes is bound to face similar charges from critics. One track for example, the 1:13 instrumental “Cornfields,” has a randomness to the sound that undercuts whatever effectiveness it might otherwise have had as a segue between sweet ballad “An Invitation” and electro-pop thumper “Why Do These Parties Always End The Same Way?” That said, something about the album’s overall flow and the way it ping-pongs so unselfconsciously from one style to the next suggests that any outside meddling would’ve been the musical equivalent of unelective surgery. Overall, A Love Extreme (re)introduces one of the year’s more exciting fresh talents, and to quote a Hughes songtitle — Mmmmmmmm….
By the way, Hughes’ double album angle isn’t exactly random. Admittedly in the download era, for a good portion of his audience, they’ll only be marginally aware of the strategy (other than to perhaps muse to themselves, upon purchase, “Hey, I just downloaded 25 friggin’ tracks by this guy….”), and for another portion, already accustomed to new releases coming with bonus discs loaded with remixes, live material, video content, etc., they might not even bat an eye. But make no mistake: this is a true double album, not a release that has the main program on Disc 1 and “all the other crap” tossed onto Disc 2, but a two-disc set that hearkens back to an era when the term signified something really special — an artist with a lot to say decides to actually say it, rather than feel constrained by editing considerations, record label dictates or music medium (LP/CD) time constraints.
I’m not necessarily calling A Love Extreme this generation’s Electric Ladyland or The White Album, of course; nowadays the likelihood of having true musical watershed moments along those lines is slim, if not nil. Anyway, who’d want to shoulder Hughes with that kind of hype/burden to live up to? What I am saying is that for someone to have the cojones to debut in such a fashion is actually more than audacious: in 2008’s singles/tracks-driven milieu, it’s goddam heroic.
Standout Tracks: “Tight Tee Shirt,” “So Well” FRED MILLS
