Fire retardant tracks.
The PR describes this album as “A fiery exploration of love’s many flames“. Ben Joseph’s pedigree sounds good on paper. An Alabama native, now residing in London, having travelled via New Orleans and Europe, graduating with an MA in Ethnomusicology. This album’s intention was to capture the spirit of Southern music while pushing boundaries.
A multitude of fine musicians (over twenty in fact) have collaborated on “The Burns”. It was recorded in New Orleans and London. Self-produced, the album was recorded by Ren Richardson with additional mixing by Stephen Llewellyn. Indeed, there are some excellent musical accompaniments and backing vocals on this album. The Lay Lows is a splendid name for a backing band. Ben Joseph is himself a talented musician. However, on these nine tracks, the music sounds hackneyed, and the songwriting over-kneaded.
For the sake of a rhyme, there’s: “Now I’m insane, now I’m in trouble/ I need a hug, make it a double” on the track ‘Fix It’ and the Dr Seuss-like “Making hats for cats” on ‘Cajun Fairy’. And, surely there can’t be many listeners left out there who would accept the opening lines from the track ‘Betty’? – “Baddest little bitch in the whole damn town/ Shaking that ass all nice and round”.
Unfortunately, there are very little boundaries pushed on this album, and the songwriting never catches fire.
