BEN WATT - Hendra

Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Singer-Songwriter | Heft: eclipsed Nr. 160 / 5-2014, Jahrgang 2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 9/10 | Label: Caroline | Autor: SaS


There are strange stories in the rock biz and this is certainly one of them: Ben Watt, musical head of the pop duo Everything But The Girl for twenty years, then internationally successful as a DJ, decides, after a serious illness, to take a break from his everyday life as a record player and record a withdrawn folk album. So far so good. The fact that such an unconventional, emotional, lyrical record would come out, however, borders on a miracle. Watt tells everyday stories of people who have not quite made it in life. He shines as an exact observer with a penchant for precise landscape descriptions. What is unusual is that Watts' stories move between nature poetry and social portraits. And he succeeds, also thanks to the reserved instrumentation, in sovereignly circumventing any cliché cliffs. David Gilmour, who refined "The Levels" with his guitar playing - the icing on the cake on an unexpectedly fantastic album - probably thought so too.

Top track: Hendra

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