Let's start with what everyone sees when they first get an album, and that's the singles that came out beforehand. Unfortunately, the site was down during most of the prep work for this album, so I didn't have a lot of personal insight into the buildup of the album. From what I can see, there was a lot of pre-screening for the album. The biggest effort, in my opinion was the track "Nothing. Everything". Ironically, the song in it's original form only appears on the deluxe version of the album. What we do get is a beautifully remastered Japanese version of the song with lyrics composed by the beautiful and Final Fantasy famous Frances Maya. Yeah. That Frances Maya. The Japanese sounds very fluid and natural (to me at least, as a foreigner), and is probably the strongest Japanese language track I've heard form Bentley since he began his career.
The big push for this album is actually one of my least favorite tracks as far as this era goes. "Evolve" is definitely polished and presentable, but it doesn't feel like a Bentley song entirely. It has grown on me tremendously from the first time I've heard it, and Ben's constant blasting of the song in his YouTube videos and fan tributes is both comical and comforting. The message is endearing, and putting it as the first track on the album as a signal to those buying the album that he's moved away from the electronic/dance vibe to a more musical type of feeling was a great way to re-introduce and re-invent himself after so many label and management changes.
The most interesting part of this album is actually in one of it's most structurally weak songs. "Axiomatis" is a song that Bentley comprised entirely of fan lyrics, fan backing vocals, and fan instrumentals. I say it's structurally weak because it is sort of obvious that it was made out of a lot of different inspirations and people working on the project, but it all came together to make one cohesive unit which is something I don't think many artists can say. The majority of the song is a bit darker than we've heard from him in a while, and harkens back to the older days when he would have a great mix of electronic music and rock guitars. The chorus' chanting seems to get a bit out of sync with the music, but when you're working with tons of fans from across the globe, coordination can be a bit difficult, no? Overall this song is something he should be incredibly proud of.
The one thing most outsiders are going to skip to instantly is his cover of "Defying Gravity" form the award-winning musical "Wicked" and originally sang by the "Frozen"-famous Idina Menzel. People are either going to completely love the musical and lyrical changes he made, or they are going to hate it with a firey passion. That is the trouble with covering beloved songs like this, because the artists can either do a cookie-cutter copy of the song and please some, or do something new and unexpected with the track and please others. This writer, for one, is madly in love with the changes he made. Covering a female vocal is difficult enough, and Ben has certainly pulled it off.
It's rare to see an independent artist go above and beyond the norm of just making single after single and actually make a full album, so I wanted to highlight a couple of the big non-single album-only tracks that really make a lasting impression. "I Have Loved" really captures the new vibe of this era. The lyrics really flow well in the song, and anybody listening to the song could easily see what Ben and his distinct sound are all about. "R1D31T", while impossible to really read, actually brings back that dirty boy Ben that we used to get oh-so-ofen with long forgotten singles like "Bad Boi" and "Alpha Dog". I think that even if the song isn't among the more prominent tracks, it was essential to keeping his fanbase connected with the artist they'd come to know and love after all these years.
Now if you went the extra mile and bought the physical copy, you got some nice extra songs. First off, he did a fantastic cover of the original theme song from one of the most iconic anime series of all time, Neon Genesis Evengelion. This song, while updated, retains a lot of it's 90's anime theme song flavor and gives me so much life and hope for Ben's upcoming Translation 3. There is also a familiar song to many gamers, as we have a Ben version of "Devil's Cry", as seen on Capcom's mega hit Devil May Cry 4. As stated before, we also get to hear the English version of "Nothing. Everything" which is hands down my favorite track of the entire bunch.
I really, really enjoyed this album. Being a long-time fan of Bentley Jones, I had known that he has been through a lot of crazy stuff over the years, and it shows in his constantly evolving style (get it?) and in his borderline crazy fans -- in the best way possible of course. This album is a message to everyone that he is on his own now and he's not slowing down.
Some complaints? Well don't hate on me, but I do feel like he may have gone a bit overboard with his falsetto this time around. I know he's always had this going for him, but in a lot of the tracks, even the title track, he really pushes it to the point of nearly half the song being in that high range. I guess it's more of a personal preference, but I dig Ben in his natural state much more. I don't really have much in the negative spectrum to say other than that. The album was well thought out, and even though it is a shift in genre form what fans are used to, it was a slow change and he didn't completely forget his roots. All in all, this is the strongest full album from Bentley Jones to date.
Be sure and pick up the album for yourself. You can hit up iTunes for the basic package. Or you can got to the official Bentley Jones website and get the deluxe physical copy, which comes with alternate artwork, a bonus DVD filled with extra content, and the awesome bonus tracks I mentioned above. Regular readers and TRUTHSt4k3rz alike, be sure and check out tomorrow for the awesome conclusion of this weekend with an exclusive interview with Bentley himself!
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