Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Gratitude

Ob sie bei Dirty Hit Records noch ein Photo vom Plattencovershooting von The Japanese House übrig hatten? Oder wurden Amber Bain und Benjamin Francis Leftwich gemeinsam mit einem Fotografen und dem gleichen Konzept in einen Hubschrauber gesetzt um Kosten zu sparen? 

Wie auch immer, nach „Good At Falling“ haben wir mit „Gratitude“ heute direkt die zweite Vorstellung aus dem Hause Dirty Hit und nähert sich Benjamin Francis Leftwich klanglich den Veröffentlichungen von The 1975 oder The Japanese House an.

Während auf er auf seinen ersten beiden Alben - „Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm“ (2011) und „After The Rain“ (2016) - eher noch als klassischer Singer/Songwriter reüssierte, öffnet sich Leftwich nun auch für elektronische Klänge und Beats sowie den obligatorischen Stimmenverzerrer. James Blake und Bon Iver lassen schön grüßen.

‘I Am With You’ ushered in pristine, synth-laden new forms to his sound, which he indulges to shimmering highs throughout ‘Gratitude’. Serenity rules on the expansive ‘Big Fish’ before it descends into a mesmerising percussive breakdown, ‘Blue Dress’ is jittery and upbeat, while the acoustic guitar loops on ‘Real Friends’ take elements of classic Ben - his dulcet vocal tones and meandering, storytelling lyrics - and dress them up stylishly, in more of an ambient vein more like James Blake than the drab, acoustic campfire contemporaries his early work sat closer to.
In turning around a painful and difficult period in his life, Ben Leftwich has managed to paint a picture of redemption and growth that’s graceful and honest without drifting into self indulgence. If there’s a lesson to be taken from ‘Gratitude’ it’s that a rebrand and a couple of synthesisers can make for a powerful combination.
(DIY Magazine)

(…) Elsewhere, over ‘Look Ma!’, the album’s latest single and the first song he wrote after getting sober, he loops an operatic vocal over his fractured piano and guitar, before a thumping beat kicks in. It’s a quietly bold experiment – and not an entirely successful one, but a track that shows that, three albums in, Leftwich continues to find new sonic territory. ‘Real Friends’ is a more fruitful experiment, combining woozy, lop-sided hip-hop production and snippets of sampled, overlapping vocals.
Dirty Hit labelmate The Japanese House’s own take on airy, confessional folktronica may be in danger of overshadowing Leftwich, but ‘Gratitude’ shows that he’s a musician who, almost a decade into his career, still has much to say – and a great deal to work out on record. “Clarity finally is coming to me,” he sings at the end of the album, and you won’t disbelieve him.
(NME)

Benjamin Francis Leftwich unterwegs:

28.04.19 Köln - Studio 672
03.05.19 München - Ampere
04.05.19 Wien - Haus der Musik
07.05.19 Berlin - Privatclub
08.05.19 Hamburg - Nochtwache