Benji
by Sun Kil Moon

From Brad1770 TOP 100 COMMENTER 03/25/2018 11:36 | #211671 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Critics and music boffins alike seem to wet their pants for the confessional spill your guts type album , one only needs to look no further than the staggeringly positive reviews for this album and Mount Erie’s “ A Crow Looked At Me “ . I’m not one of them

What you have here are 11 tracks ( 1 hour !) of one guys stream of consciousness over a mostly mundane guitar and none are particularly interesting , none draw you in and none definitely have replay ability , listening to this album is much like reading a boring book you can’t wait to finish

Some of the lyrics here are truly awful, check this line out from ‘ I Love My Dad’

“ When I was 5 I came home from Kindergarten and cried because they’d sat me next to an albino “ !

The track ‘Dogs ‘ ( a sexual encounter he had whilst listening to Pink Floyd’s ‘ Dogs’ ) is voyeristic and cring worthy & is down right terrible , track 8 'I Watched the Film The Song Remains the Same ' is similarly dreadful and rambles on for more than 10 minutes

There are some ok moments though , opener 'Carissa' is sad and sets a somber mood , 'Pray for Newtown' cries out for gun control 4 years prior to 2018's mood and 'Truck Driver' is musically the best thing here

Oh and the album needs to come with a health warning... Aerosol Cans Can Kill ( listen to the album and you’ll understand)

Monologue

45/100

For an album that consists mostly of rambling on with singing that verges on just talking, this album is awesome. It's got really nice instrumentation and extremely personal lyrics, and I really dig it. It's already one of my favorites this year

From Radioscope 12/01/2014 21:53 | #128443 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I often tend to forget to listen to the lyrics and simply enjoy the musical side of... you know, music, even if it is a folk or hip-hop album, specially at first listen. This was no exception, as I put Benji and started doing other stuff. I remember reaching Jim Wise when I felt as if a glass of freezing water poured over my back as I realized how the almost sole topic of that album was death. After that I stopped doing whatever I was doing and stood there, with my eyes opened, until the end of the record feeling that I had never crossed such a direct, raw and completely honest album as Benji. I could hear him play on his uncle's funeral and punching that poor boy's face. Whether those stories are true or not, I do not care because they are as real as a story can become. Though it has an acid taste if taken too often, this album has some special power.

Favorite song: Micheline, by far. It has some power over me so strong that when I listen to it I feel like I am being lifted up in the air while gently spiralling upwards.

Like catching up with old friends and extended family at a drunken wake, celebrating the good times and realising how lucky you are to be alive.

From zdwyatt TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/09/2015 17:17 | #131146 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Mark Kozelek has always trafficked in personal lyrics and spare arrangements, but this album is about as raw as it gets. He is so open that it can honestly be hard to listen to; it feels like eavesdropping. But there is something compelling about the honesty, and the stories are thematically universal. Granted, I have never lost a loved one to an exploding aerosol can, and he has somehow lost two.