Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
We all have regrets, no matter how hard we try to purge them, or even deny to others that they exist, that will always follow us around like a black cloud of wrong decision in an otherwise blameless and unyielding sky.
Of course a life without blame is no life at all, the perfect human who has sailed through life without ever taken a wrong turn does not exist, and whilst we may feel sorrow for the path laid down, it also provides opportunity for art in all its guises to highlight the tales, the stories and the feelings of the deeply personal to such an extent that they take on the appearance of being shouldering the expression of the facade broken free whilst thrusting the story-teller the chance to be Among The Faceless Crowd.
The emotion of a move, of children being born and being raised in hope and expectation, and of being true to the form of art all combine to shake the foundations of a life in pursuit of understanding regret, it makes us release our tragedy and the exposed fears are there for a reason, so that we can blend in with others in their own mistakes and confusions, whilst remaining an individual, the same but apart.
After a decade of being in L.A. and arguably standing out from that vast sea to humanity clings as the sun beats down and polarises the American view, Ben Bostick has returned to the south of the country, and whilst the anonymity such a move may provide, away from the glare of the lights and the crowded conversation, it also has acted as a catalyst for what can only be described as the artist’s finest and most complete work to date.
Across tracks such as Wasting Gas, Working For A Living, The Thief, Too Dark To Tell and the sublime finale of If I Were A Novel, Ben Bostick’s resonating charm, his pensive response to the album Hellfire, and the shape of plying a master of all you should survey approach to life, has combined to make an album of raucous introspection, not one of noise and no substance, but undoubtedly one that matches the tempest storm in its delivery, full of might and the fear of the unknown quantity, yet leaving in its wake, a prize of peace and furious understanding.
An album driven by a man of substance, of a will to produce art in the eye of a soul storm, and one which says it is Among The Faceless Crowd but which is, like its maker, stands out as uniquely cool and full of gravitas.
Ian D. Hall