Customer Reviews

Ripe

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I listen to WFUV in NY and they play a great variety of music including a lot of music I never heard before. This person was one of those I had never heard of before but has evidently been around a long time. It is a fabulous ablum, well worth purchasing.

I'll be the contrarian here. I bought this from a used bin at my local indie on the strength of some of his older work (songs I connected with from the far superior "Awake Is The New Sleep"). I even sampled a few tracks in the store, and found them appealing and catchy. The problem was, on further listens, there was nothing more to it than what was immediately and readily apparent on the surface. No depth, nothing interesting. The lyrics came off (to me) as trite and insincere, and the melodies sounded like plenty I had heard before. The production was also just a bit too sharp and glossy, ready-made for adult alternative radio. What a disappointment - I brought it right back to the store. Ben's better than this, and I will reference "Awake Is The New Sleep" as evidence. Better luck next time Ben, and it saddens me to have to write this review.

Not as good as Awake is the New Sleep, but I thought it was borderline between okay and good. I'm a bit disappointed how Ben Lee has moved onto a more "Pop" sound, rather than his contemplative and deep "Indie/Rock" sound. I hate to have to say this, because I LOVE Ben Lee. However, while the pop sound is disappointing, I really enjoy quite a few songs on this ablum including: Love Me Like The World Is Ending, American Television, Blush, Numb, Sex Without Love, Home, So Hungry, and Just Say Yes. I did not, however, enjoy Birds And Bees, Is This How Love Is Supposed To Feel, What Would Jay-Z Do, and Ripe. Birds and Bees actually makes me my ears bleed. I haven't made it through more than half that track.

Latently this album is not as in your face sonically experimental as his ARIA award winning Awake Is The New Sleep. Some may even say its throwaway, rushed to the shelves and plain out, bland and LOUD repetitive guitar pop. But as with any long term stay record, the onions hidden layers will reveal themselves over time. The epitome of the album is how Ben Lee captures the lonely predicament of his followers: Generation Y - to scarily; but potent and relevant Zeitgeist extremes. It's all about yearning of love from strangers, unrequited & even requited...words/sentiments/messages no other mainstream musician would dare say (except perhaps for SIR James Blunt). Lee tells the hidden obvious, the secret longings...and does it bravely, melodically: almost storybook like - so it's important to listen to this album in original tracklisting order. I believe Sex Without Love should be released as a single; I was always a sucker for jingles & songs domineering and pretentious media critics hate e.g. Blunt's You're Beautiful. Long live precious singer/songwriters...as the ones I've mentioned have been the albums of the week at Borders Bookstores.

There's one track on this album that is going to hit you over the head with pop heaven goodness, and that is Sex Without Love; the song is an utterly catchy tune that screams out pop perfection. No other track on the album though, comes close to rivaling the catchiness of Sex Without Love. In fact, there's only one other song (American Television) that even attempts to embrace the same unrestrained catchy pop structure as Sex Without Love.

The 10 other tracks can be classified as either mellow pop (Birds and Bees, Blush, Numb, Hungry, and Ripe), or a blend of catchy and mellow pop (Love Me Like The World Was Ending, Is This How Love's Supposed To Feel?, What Would Jay-Z Do?, Home, and Just Say Yes).

The catchy mellow fusion works really well on Is This How Love's Supposed To Feel?, Hungry, and Just Say Yes; the songs start off mellow, with strong lyrics that carry the song to the chorus where the songs then become catchy. If it wasn't for Sex Without Love, it would be these 3 tracks that I would be listening to over and over again.
As for the mellow songs, Blush and Hungry are the standouts; they are quiet songs with nice lyrics about love.

All in all, this is a good album; out of 12 tracks, there are 4 (Sex Without Love, Is This How Love's Supposed To Feel?, Hungry, and Just Say Yes) that the only sensible response upon hearing them is to play them again, and 5 others (Love Me Like The World Was Ending, American Television, Blush, Hungry, and Ripe) that while they may not inspire you to replay them, they will not strike you with the urge to skip over them either.

The store where I work has a piped-in station with its own corporate approved playlist. Surprisingly, most of the music they play isn't that bad. Sure, there's the occasional Jordin Sparks or Fergie song, but we get a lot of Spoon, Gemma Hayes, and other decent artists too. Then they started playing this song, "Birds and Bees." The first time it played most of us kind of laughed it off. Then it kept showing up, daily. At one point, one of my fellow associates asked me to please kill her if they ever started to play "that god-awful song" again. I had to know what kind of person could write this unabashedly cheesy song without realizing how bad it was. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was Mr. Ben "Still Living in 1996" Lee. I also noticed that two other songs from this album are in rotation on the playlist. "Love Me Like the World is Ending" and "Is This How Love's Supposed to Feel" are both shallow, middle of the road AOR friendly songs. In fact, we had mused on who wrote those songs as well, and the consensus was that it had to have been some one-hit wonder from the '90's. We were right, even though these songs are technically new. Ben Lee writes the same dorm-room pop crap that he was writing when he came onto the scene 12 years ago, and that is simply sad. Is maturity a 28-year old sounding like a 16-year old? I don't think so. Also, I'm not sure who the staff reviewer was, but using the words "Good Charlotte" and "Ben Lee" and "indie" in the same sentence should be enough to get you fired. Bottom line: Ben Lee writes songs that other people (and himself) have already written better.

... and then you're rotten.
Okay, it pains me to write such a negative review of "Ripe." After the wonderful "Awake is the New Sleep" I felt Ben might finally deliver on the tremendous potential he demonstrated on "Grandpaw Would" and to a lesser degree on "Something to Remember Me By" and in his Noise Addict days. Alas, 'twas not to be.
"Ripe" sounds like a demo tape for a new Brady Bunch movie (you know, a bad remake, like the "Bewitched" movie a couple years ago). What decade is it, Ben? The drum machine, the facile lyrics, the formulaic tempo transitions ... <sigh>
Let's look at the tracks:
1. Love Me Like The World Is Ending - okay, the album starts with arguably its strongest pop track, but hasn't Ben sung this song -- like four or five times already -- under a different title?
2. American Television - Play this and then listen to Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" ... at least she sang "Kids" in the 1980s -- which is where this song belongs.
3. Birds And Bees - I was wondering if Ben Lee weren't perhaps mocking Mandy Moore with this song. It is ... awful. The spoken lines only make the song more embarrassing. This song should have never been allowed to be recorded. It is a song where listening to it once, all the way through, is more than enough. The fifth time? It is like fingernails on a blackboard ....
4. Is This How Love Is Supposed To Feel - a nasal whining track with the droning beat of the drum machine.
5. Blush - probably the best track of the disc. Nice sound, clever lyrics. Reminiscent of Traveling Wilburys at their best.
6. Numb - I've wondered what Ben is trying to say with this song. Perhaps this awful album is because he is angry at his label and is simply fulfilling his contract with a bunch of half-baked songs? In any case this song is McCartneyesque, but certainly a post-Beatles McCartney.
7. What Would Jay-Z Do? - C'mon - the "What would ______ do?" joke became annoying about 15 years ago. Is this the spiritual awakening you've been boasting about, Ben?
8. Sex Without Love - A dreadful tune. Perhaps if this were released in the 80s it would've gotten some airplay at middle school dances after Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax."
9. Home - "I'm tired of being alooone, I want to take you hoooome" ... with lyrics like this and contrived bridges this song is nearly unlistenable. Reminds me of songs on demo tracks of bands that *don't* get contracts.
10. So Hungry - A forgettable track. Nothing there.
11. Just Say Yes - Another anthem. Why is Ben writing arena rock when his concerts are in bars (where he generally makes for a delightful evening of entertainment)?
12. Ripe - Not bad. If you can make it this far.
If you like saccharin, over-produced, droning music that insults your intelligence, go ahead and buy "Ripe." If you like Ben Lee, do yourself a favor ... keep it that way by not buying this disc. Get "Awake" or "Grandpaw" if you don't already have them.