Kudos!Kudos!Kudos! Why have I just discovered this man? I don’t know, but he is going straight to the top of my BEST of 2015 chart. Maybe Benjamin Clementine is the only rookie worth talking about this year. I feel like I need to come up with a new word If I want to describe this idiosyncratic artist. Contingency of dispersed elements in his work is simply genius. Soul, cabaret, spoken word. There are even neo chansons inspired by Serge Lam and Jacques Brel. No wonder these legends had an influence on Clementine.
Born in United Kingdom, Benjamin escaped to French motivated by desire to learn more. The part of the album covers that period of his life. The decision is mine, so let the lesson be mine. Adios is a complex and brilliant song, parted in two dynamically different acts. Just wow! Condolence and Cornerstone are his first two singles and every music author out there would want to have these superior tracks on his\her album. The opening track called Winston Churchill’s Boy is a culmination of lyrical potency and the vocal interpretation. If you want to experience artistic nirvana, please make sure to check out the lyrics when you listen to this song. Well they say no man can be a prophet in his own country so I left.
Original approach in singing and writing verses is also to be heard on The People And I. Unique voice merges with piano and cello. From the middle of the song, exquisite mannerism reminded me of Glenn Hansard and Damien Rice.
Suma sumarum, Benjamin Clementine nurtures a new style. It seems like he is doing it naturally, almost by reflex or instinct, without any pretentiousness. No one has ever returned the same from the journey and in the case of this musician, the journey has just begun. I will be pretentious in his name and proclaim this album the most progressive and original debut in the last couple of years. Goodbye Nina Simone, Seal, Antony Hegarty. Hello Benjamin!
