Benjamin Booker

Benjamin Booker is one of those up and comers who should really be more well known. His debut album is has phenomenal guitar playing that could one day rival the likes of Jack White, with whom Benjamin Booker toured with as an opening act. This album starts off with Booker shredding the guitar on "Violent Shiver." He keeps the guitar fast and loud until the song, "Slow Coming," which gives the listener time to compose themselves before "Wicked Waters," starts rocking the album again. However despite the slow tempo of "Slow Coming," it deserves probably the most attention than the rest of the songs because this where Benjamin Booker brings up many social issues such as equal rights for everyone. I love how he brings up the technological advances, which is what everyone seems to measure our progress in the world, in comparison with the fact that we're not all equal. We have our technology but in terms of social progress we are behind the times. As Benjamin Booker puts it, "the future is slow coming." 

In the song, "Have You Seen My Song," there's the struggle of a boy growing up with a very religious mother. The mother tries to push religion on her son after he has, "just learned to chew his meat." The boy fights against this force of religion. The end of this song breaks out into some good old rock n roll instrumentation that reminds us once again that at such a young Benjamin Booker can really play the guitar. After this grand finale, we are met with soft singing in "Spoon Out My Eyeballs," but that doesn't last long before it starts to speed up and get louder. However, this transition doesn't take place before the public radio gets dissed for its lack of originality. 

 "Happy Homes" is a dark display of a young girl dead in a gutter. However in "Old Hearts," the singer is talking to his sister wishing that someday they will be friends regardless of the fact that they are siblings, "things haven't been the same." I can relate to this because siblings aren't always on good terms with one another, and sometimes it's impossible to get back to how things used to be. 

Much of this album is about being young and rebellious, but it's about the darker side of being young. The things most kids don't talk to their parents about, the things we keep secret from most people besides the ones we trust or the ones we share these experiences with. Benjamin Booker's gruff voice is perfect for it and so is writing style.