- Audio CD (13 Sep 2004)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: CD
- Label: Cooking Vinyl
- ASIN: B0002M3V3Y
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 177,060 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Description
Review
Something of an Aled Jones plastered with testosterone patches, Wolverhampton's finest (only?) singer-songwriter wastes no time in dividing his audience into opposing camps.
Opening track "Flowers Drink Upon The Ground" encapsulates both all that is good, and all that is needlessly whimsical about his music. "Queer as folk they think there's gold in those rugged streams but it's been dry for years," he sings. "They sway like empty clothes in soulless avenues, and they wind on like the roads, until the rain became their eyes...", mixing clichés with admittedly poetic babble like some holy seer after chowing a psychotropic stir-fry.
This, his third album following 1999 debut My Beautiful Demon and the pared down folk-electronica of 2001's Spoonface, cements a whimsical, decidedly precocious and yet guile-free foray into the embarrassing depths of public heartbreak. Have guitar, will bleed on request.
Ben finds himself pinned up alongside a usual suspects line-up that includes Jeff Buckley, a younger, less jaded Leonard Cohen, Aimee Mann in bobbled y-fronts and Radiohead's Thom Yorke - that arch purveyor of the delicious whinge. He struggles to live up to the comparisons...but pulls it off despite a vocal range that betrays room for improvement.
This madrigal of moon-faced melancholy soon hits his stride with the likes of foot-tapping "Good Day For The Hopeless", while "Everybody Stood To See Us" rivals the group hug inducing, feel-good lovers The Polyphonic Spree.
And there's more. "A Race For Me & Forever" adopts a Beatles-like jingoism with chirpy drum accompaniment while the Beck like "Devil To Kill"threatens to morph at any moment into MTV material.
Treading a fine line between saccharine and assured, Ben Christophers doesn't seem too bothered that, like a particularly tricky algebra equation, his working-out is scrawled all over this highly personalised offering. This is x (angst) plus y (honesty) multiplied by z (sincerity) = q (occasionally awkward but largely successful attempt at original composition).
In other words? You've passed, lad. --Bren O'Callaghan
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Having parted company with V2 in 2002 and moved to Cooking Vinyl, Ben Christophers presents us with his third album "The Spaces in Between". This piece of work shares certain similarities with his two earlier masterpieces "My Beautiful Demon" and "Spoonface", but has a different - difficult to conceptualize - sound to it. From the engaging hook of "Good Day for the Hopeless" to the ethereal yet sinister "Fake Eyelash", and from the haunting lilt of "The Drinking Tree" to the upbeat "A Race Between Me and Forever", Ben does not disappoint. He shines brightly as the unique talent he is - vocally, lyrically, and musically. He presents us with another gem that though impossible to define, is a pleasure to hear and savour.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This third album lacks the musical coherence of its predecessor, Spoonface, but it's arguably more accessible and immediate. It's a strange affair, mixing as it does, upbeat pop and haunting downbeat visions. The upbeat pop comes in the form of 'Good Day For The Hopeless', 'A Race Between Me And Forever' and 'Everybody Stood To See Us.' The latter is easily the best of the three, and should have been the choice for first single. It is a genuinely beautiful pop song. The other two mentioned are okay, but they don't stand up to most of his previous recordings. The opening track, Flowers Drink Upon The Ground, is probably the most ambitious and original piece on the album, mixing folk and electronica. Other hightlights are The Drinking Tree and Fake Eyelash, both of which are dark and enchanting. The final piece, the title track, doesn't rank alongside the title tracks from the first two albums. It's a curious piece, with a kind of singalong chorus, but there's a darkness lurking there. It's perhaps Ben's strangest song to date. Overall, I would have to say it's a relatively minor offering, although a pretty good one. The first two albums were artistic statements; this is just a collection of songs. But the album is frequently compelling and not like anything else. Ben's voice remains one of the best and most unique in contemporary music, and it's worth pointing out that he performed the music on this album almost singlehandedly. But the next album could well prove crucial for Ben. It will need to redefine his musical vision, as it has become somewhat confused here.
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It's his third album !!! (where's he been all my life ? )
I came across this by accident and saw him live a few weeks later,
This is special, in places it's so crooked it makes me smile.
From 'The Drinking Tree'
" There's a hiss from the highway, snakes her hips into everybody's ears
don't think I've heard silence for years." To 'Everybody Stood To See Us'
"Rip out time from the clock, no one keeps up with the hands anyway, I walked a lonely street of skeleton grins, a needle full of empty things but all along we were ok."
It oozes with hopes and fears, there are moments of electronica mixed with the folk to country, like on the rather peverse but wonderful opener 'flowers drink upon the ground,' the most wonderful mesmerizing piece of song writing I've heard for years, his voice ripples through me and if that's not enough to keep you occupied the album takes quite a few turns from the darkest ' Where The Road Bends ' to the happy 'A Race between me and forever.'
He is an Artist who is truely of his own making, there's something strange and beautiful about the boy from the Black Country.
I came across this by accident and saw him live a few weeks later,
This is special, in places it's so crooked it makes me smile.
From 'The Drinking Tree'
" There's a hiss from the highway, snakes her hips into everybody's ears
don't think I've heard silence for years." To 'Everybody Stood To See Us'
"Rip out time from the clock, no one keeps up with the hands anyway, I walked a lonely street of skeleton grins, a needle full of empty things but all along we were ok."
It oozes with hopes and fears, there are moments of electronica mixed with the folk to country, like on the rather peverse but wonderful opener 'flowers drink upon the ground,' the most wonderful mesmerizing piece of song writing I've heard for years, his voice ripples through me and if that's not enough to keep you occupied the album takes quite a few turns from the darkest ' Where The Road Bends ' to the happy 'A Race between me and forever.'
He is an Artist who is truely of his own making, there's something strange and beautiful about the boy from the Black Country.
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