Benjamin Francis Leftwich Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm (Dirty Hit)
2/5
By: Rachel Bolland
“I am a member of the butterfly culture”, sings Benjamin Francis Leftwich on ‘Butterfly Culture’, “We work and we take/We play and we pray to God/That the girl in that undress will undress”. I’ll be honest, I really have no idea what this “butterfly culture” is, but if it spawns the kind of insipid music that makes up the majority of Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm, I don’t think I want anything to do with it.
Benjamin Francis Leftwich’s debut effort would have made a perfect soundtrack to The OC, or a similar American teenage drama with 16 year olds played by people pushing 30 and all the overblown drama that comes with that. Opening track ‘Pictures’ introduces Leftwich’s slightly weak vocal backed by the almost ever-present finger picking acoustic guitar. With lyrics like “You’ve been around and you’ve seen/the way that things work/but you need a compass to/get around your house”, it’s clear to see the stance that Last Smoke is taking. This is music for the confused teenage girl, the one that feels alienated by the culture that The Only Way is Essex exemplifies but chooses to rebel by entering into a subculture of song lyrics scribbled on school work and out of focus shots of lakes. He is, basically, a teenage indie girl’s wet dream.
The majority of the record feels like it has an almost earnest need to prove itself. With a vocal and songwriting style not unlike Damien Rice or Jose Gonzalez, Leftwich lacks the delicacy that Rice brought to songs like ‘Cannonball’. Many of the tracks on his debut record O were complex, beautiful songs, absolutely none of which seems to have translated to Last Smoke. ‘Atlas Hands’ is possibly the most reminiscent of Rice, using a female vocal in a very similar style but again, the acoustic guitar coupled with a lack of adventurousness results in a horrible mawkish song. Even Mumford & Sons, who seems to provoke more hatred than most other bands I’ve come across, manage to do the folk thing with a bit of balls - say what you like about them but tracks like ‘Little Lion Man’ or ‘Dust Bowl Dance’ have a power to captivate in a way that ‘Stole You Away’ on Leftwich’s debut never quite manages.
However, in amongst all the bland folk there is hope on occasion. Lead single ‘Box of Stones’ provides one of the few truly beautiful moments and on a record where many of the songs wash straight over you offers up something that actually catches your attention. While it still leaves a lot to be desired lyrically, it seems to offer slightly more depth. The swelling and ebbing chorus stirs something within that you only get with truly gorgeous music. It’s a very simple song, minimal percussion but a very beautiful string part, which not only makes the song significantly more interesting but is beautifully produced so as to avoid the scratchiness that sometimes comes with string instruments. Similarly the title track feels slightly more genuine than some of the other efforts on the record, a very simple piece of music which feels significantly less contrived. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between, which it’s a shame because these show that Benjamin Francis Leftwich has a talent and potential. However, the rest of the record is just a bit hard to stomach if you’ve got a bit of sense, and, apparently, aren’t part of his butterfly culture, whatever that may be. After 10 tracks I’m still none the wiser.
Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Pictures by blurasis
Artists in this article: Benjamin Francis Leftwich
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