Written
by Mike Yoder, posted by blog admin
Portsmouth,
UK born Ben Brookes traveled far to record his debut album The Motor Car &
The Weather Balloon, but it quickly proves worth every mile. There’s a tangible
transatlantic flavor to this ten song collection uniting Brookes’ obvious UK
pop and rock influences with bluesy and gritty American derived gravitas impressing
added meaning onto these performances. The creative brain trust behind the
album’s creation is almost exclusively English in composition; Brookes is ably
assisted by producer and former Badfinger member Greg Healey as well as
legendary Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland. Keyboard Greg Inhofer and drummer
Michael Bland headline the American pedigree of the project and their
contributions to the final result are inestimable. The Motor Car & The
Weather Balloon is a deceptively ambitious affair; the songs are immediately
accessible and never sprawl, but there’s such relentless urgency and a
widescreen point of view defining Brookes’ material that you find yourself more
and more involved with the song’s implications and multiple meanings with each
new listen.
The
beauty of this album is apparent from the first song onward. “I Wanna Go Home”
begins with a brief snippet of spoken word and ambient sound before launching
into the song. His melodic strengths are immediately apparent. Some might identify
a sort of sing-songy quality about the opener’s melody, but others will find it
beguiling and the supporting instrumentation really makes the piece come alive
as a whole. “Integration (Not Segregation)” has a little more obvious melodic
complexity and continues with one of the album’s foundational elements – nearly
every song on The Motor Car & The Weather Balloon sounds like it emerged from
an acoustic guitar driven demo and you can discern the skeletal remains of that
original structure in virtually every song. His lyrical artistry is apparent,
as well, in the song “Crack a Smile” and this artfully turned “laughing to keep
from crying” song might end up being one of the album’s true sleepers, so don’t
gloss over it. His phrasing is especially exquisite on this number. “Before
Sunlight”, however, is one of the obvious peak moments on the release thanks to
another winning Brookes vocal melody and his singing exploits its potential to
the fullest. The musical arrangement is substantive, yet it never threatens to
overwhelm his voice. Instead, everything, once again, falls into a perfect
balance with each other.
“Stories
in the Rain” is one of the album’s harder edged numbers and the increased emphasis
on guitar heroics makes it stand out on an album that often adopts a low-fi
mood to memorable effect. Another of the aforementioned memories arrives with
the song “Somewhere Around Eight”. It might be one of the freshest songs about
heart break in recent memory and Brookes orchestrates its electric and acoustic
elements alike with a sure hand. There’s some key electric guitar passages that
give extra weight to the album closer “Shackles” and a strong chorus, but it’s
the muted elegance of the finale and its lyrical content that are likely to
stick with listeners. The Motor Car & The Weather Balloon would be an uber
impressive outing from a veteran singer/songwriter, but coming from a first
timer, it’s revelatory. There’s little question that this is a major new talent
intent on bringing his music to the masses.
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