REVIEW: BEN HARPER - WIDE OPEN LIGHT

4/5

Where The Light Goes. 

This Friday may just be one of the biggest days this year for the release of new music. Five albums highlighted by the first Ben Folds record in an age ('What Matters Most'). The Foo Fighters' first album since the tragic loss of dear drummer Taylor Hawkins ('But Here We Are'). A live album from the songbook of the greatest, Bob Dylan ('Shadow Kingdom'). And even a remix album from Jack Johnson ('In Between Dub') amongst many more. The surfer sings, "Love is a yard sale/Strangers wander up on your grass/To hold your future hostage/And bargain for your past/But all sales are final/No returns, not that you would/I'm pretty sure she's gone for good", on the lawn of Ben Harper's 'Yard Sale' too. The lead single from Harper's brand-new album, 'Wide Open Light'. Ben and Jack, frequent collaborators for the cream, like Ben and Jerry. All as Ben broods, "She came to gather/All of her personal effects/It seemed a bit too late/For goodbye sex/Out the window an engine idled/Some guy leaning on the hood/I'm pretty sure she's gone for good." Yet this record doesn't register on NPR's weekly reliable roster of releases every New Music Friday. 

It's probably merely due to the sheer amount of albums out this week, but his instant vintage vinyl shouldn't be lost in a Spotify shuffle. Like the solitary smoking figure in the lonesome window of a typical, traditional New York apartment block in the middle of a summer that scorches like the lighter. All for some amazing artwork that ranks amongst Ben's best, between 'Both Sides Of The Gun' and 'My Childhood Home' too. Ben of the Folds variety may have the best album of the week. The Foo, the deepest. And out of the darkness, Dylan and Johnson give collectors more for their catalogue, but Harper's latest put his bazaar of versatile music is the most diverse, even if it is mostly all acoustic like the instrumental 'Heart and Crown' opening, similar to the 'January Rain' of a David Gray 'Serendipity'. 

You only have to listen to the phantom piano playing of album standout (in more ways than one) 'Trying Not To Fall In Love With You' to see the bluesy, folk hero who can relentlessly rock with 7, sing spirituals with Blind Boys and form supergroups with the son of a Beatle has another level like Jay-Z working with UK R&B. All in a whole new key for something almost akin to operatic staged moments. This epic, smokey lounge jazz takes you as high as the kingdoms of Dylan's concert film soundtrack shadows. Yet, it's 'Love After Love' that is classic Ben Harper, complete with those compelling couplets that over time have become his signature. "Some run for cover/Some chase the storm/Flags raised with a vengeance/Battle-ready and worn/The hardest words/That I'll ever have to say/Is nothing to the debt silence can never pay", he laments with love. Talking about days that run away with all the pretty wild horses, even though this rolling stone could never, like Jagger, be dragged away. 

With no agenda, the songs are more than enough. Haunting like 'Giving Ghosts', or the spiritual of the album's amazing title-track that lets the same light Matchbox Twenty wondered about last week, in. Whilst he paints his 'Masterpiece', Harper harmonies "There's no time like now/There's no place like here/So throw your loving arms around me dear/And I'll lean on you like a beggar/Leans upon the moonlit street/Loving you is my masterpiece." Originally written for the Rickie Lee Jones album 'The Devil You Know', it's a better way is found with this heaven sent talent you know. There really is no time like now, or place like this album as the ode of our greatest masterpiece and life's greatest magnum opus resides with the one we love like an R.E.M. dream. FIRE! 

Night-swimming between the '8 Minutes' that feel more like two, Ben tells us, "Today I turned 33/My oldest didn't call/Middle's outta state/And the youngest lives here with me/It's not just a town/It's a final resting place/When I die from choices I refused to make." A deep-dive, poetic and profound look at love and life. What it takes...and what we make of it. All before it's deeper and deeper, 'Growing, Growing Gone' with the auction of "Your feet barely touched the ground/By the time I turned around/When dreams come true/It's hard to sleep/Slowly drifting in the deep/She's growing/Growing/She's gone", for the heartbreaking house that always wins like the father time of life. Adding, "She's quite a sight behind the wheel/Now I'm in the passenger seat/With nerves of steel/I'm misery in harmony/Now that you're wild and free", for what could be a lover lost, or a daughter all grown up, looking into her father's eyes. It's just 'One More Change' Our bodies, hearts and minds go and grow through over the seasons like, "Been holding on/Too long to let go/Been running too hard to slow down/Believing too deep to not have faith/I've got one more change to make/One more chain to break." The poetry. The profundity. 

Ben is back once again. And this new Chrysalis record is organically minimalist, yet magnificent. With his own stellar songbook with a wide range of chapters that could have their own series of novels, Ben Harper is a living legend who should not be mentioned as a footnote, playing in the margins. He belongs with the Johnson's and the Folds. The best bands like Grohl's fighting for a Springsteen songbook that chases (like Benjamin's middle name) the poets like Dylan. Sliding through his guitar work, the only surf this Californian rides more than the tides of different genres is a realm of relentless releases. From Innocent Criminals to legends like Charlie Musselwhite. Just like Jack, it's not even been a year since his last album 'Bloodline Maintenance' (22/the days after my birthday in July (thanks, Ben)/22), that honoured his father. But this one with the 'Childhood Home' duet of his mother Ellen's voice creeping in strikes another chord. Bookended by acoustics like his 2020 pandemic shut-in of 'Winter Is For Lovers' with the final 'Thank You, Pat Bayer' beautiful tribute. It's time we pay respect to another real one too. Needle dropped with this raw and ready record that crackles like lit cigarettes for the stores today. Even in a wide world open to darkness these days, there will be a light again. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Yard Sale (Feat. Jack Johnson)', 'Trying Not To Fall In Love With You', 'Love After Love'.