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Ben and Jason - Goodbye Yes, they’re really just called Ben and Jason, though their surnames are Parker and Hazeley respectively. Yes, this is their last (fourth) album and they’ve just called it Goodbye, like their first was just called Hello. But if you’ve heard anything by the marvellous duo, you’ll know it’s this honest, straight-to-the-source policy that is exactly what’s so marvellous about them. I don’t mind admitting that I’m going to miss them a great deal. But they’ve been so thoughtful and left us all with an amazing present. Nine fantastic little presents, to be exact. (To find out more about the past, present and future motivations for the duo, take a look at our interview)
It can’t be denied that a large factor in their appeal is Ben’s voice, which is like a cello personified. A rich, earthy mid-range gives way to a captivatingly tender falsetto in a single breath. It’s one of those natural voices that you can never tire of listening to. Indeed, this might be a final album but there’s no evidence of a magic fading. In many ways, it’s as fresh as their first, albeit a little more down-tempo.
Mr. America taps on the mic and introduces the proceedings with a pedal steel swagger, Ben singing rather more softly than we’ve been used to on their opening album tracks. Who ‘Mr. America’ is isn’t exactly clear, but with one song called Hollywood (The Story Of a Domestic Explosion), and another called A Star In Nobody’s Picture, there’s some semblance of a theme coming through. On one hand the references to America in general and Hollywood in particular might seem odd for a duo who are so enigmatically British, but Ben and Jason are right in the midst of the frankly depressing cult of celebrity along with the rest of us. With more talent in a fibre of an individual hair than your common-or-garden lame academy student, it’s a wonder they don’t sound bitter in their latest work. In fact, bearing in mind that they were dropped by Go!Beat (Goodbye is being released by Setanta) in the middle of recording, it’s pretty miraculous. Luckily for us, Ben and Jason are just as deliciously melancholy as ever.
A Star in Nobody’s Picture, mentioned above, is a clear highlight. A fantastic string arrangement shimmers and pulses in and around the chorus, and its up there with their very best work. The distinctively ‘plummy’ double bass playing of Ben and Jason regular Jonathan de’Ath drives the melody through, while the narrative of the tale describes a woman desperate for attention. “Is there anybody there, anybody there, to see?” goes the downright sublime bridge.
Some, in fact, most of the songs are a lot sparser, though that’s not to their detriment. When you know the fantastic orchestral arrangements which Jason is capable of pulling off, it’s testament to their skills that they don’t need to use all of them all of the time to impress you. Each song gets the treatment it needs- just a minimal use of make-up, no need for a facelift.
10$ Miracle marks the mid-way point. Apparently this was written before they decided this was to be their last album, but with lines like “It’s over, we’re over - a chance to part before we’re older”, it makes for a spookily pertinent centrepiece. Multiply that sensation by the power of ten when you consider that for most of the track we only hear Ben. For a moment you could be forgiven for thinking that Jason had already left the studio, as we start and finish with a naked vocal and an acoustic guitar. But just when you think it’s turning into a solo effort, we get a compellingly subtle woodwind section underneath the finale of the next track, Orphans. And the organ beneath the chorus of Sail On Heaven’s Seas (a sea shanty of sorts, complete with fog-horn) is the sailboat for Ben’s soaring seabird of a voice to alight between flights. Perhaps you don’t think you’re into ‘all that acoustic folky stuff’, but just try to keep those goose bumps down when Ben sings “If I can never hold you again, I’ll whisper your name on the rain, and I’ll sail on heaven’s seas, with you.” You’ll fail.
With regards to the apparent economy of the production on Goodbye, it’s important to consider that you can only get away with such simplicity if when the songs are genuinely great. Whether it’s really their best album or not (which a lot of the press seem to be suggesting thus far), it undoubtedly manages to sustain the most consistent mood of all their work. From start to finish you’ll be floating in a little Ben and Jason bubble and you’ll be staying there for half an hour thank you very much.
Ben and Jason have never made particularly long albums, and with 9 tracks on Goodbye, the trend continues. But this is also indicative of their powers. They do what they need to do, and that’s it. No messing around. I would go as far as to say they’ve made some of the best real songs of the last four years. Not only that, but songs that would stand up against the best songs of any decade. Ben and Jason, for all the much-mooted similarities to Nick Drake (a common inspiration for Parker and Hazeley), conjure up images of Burt Bacharach and Carole King at their best. There are definitely a few corridors of that mighty song-writing factory which was the Brill building captured in that sound of theirs. The Turin Brakes might strum along without them, but whether they’ll have produced four albums as succinctly beautiful as those of Ben and Jason by 2005 we’ll have to see.
When to Laugh is a memorable farewell to leave us with; it’s the sound of a chain gang working through the blazing heat as the sun finally starts to fall. The chorus here is particularly deft, and you can’t help but wonder if it’s aimed at all those executives who manufacture the pigeonholes for every conceivable form of expression in contemporary culture. A disillusioned Ben sings: “The prop hand stole my cue cards, and I don’t know when to laugh. And I’m paying no attention, and I don’t know when to laugh”. We just catch a guttural gospel chant as the prisoners disappear over the hill, fading into silence. If you’re familiar with Ben and Jason, you might find yourself staring longingly into the distance for a while; perhaps hoping the chain gang might turn back. If you’re new to them, well you’re in the enviable position of being to get your ears around three other fantastic releases. Please excuse the rest of us - we’re a little fragile right now.
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