We live in a world of pop “girlies” at the moment, and although it is a triumphant thing, for them and for us, we still have to maintain some sort of rooted interest in seeing one of the pop boys (boys-iees?) Obtaining a cultural moment from time to time, if only for the good of the old-fashioned parity. But there simply is not much competition, at present. Yes, there has been a wave of very successful young men who have come up in the pop charts in recent years, but they are almost all about the seriousness of the balladic, as if they were to create a world full of wedding songs, by jumping the part of the real commitment – the commitment in pleasure and the spirit and all the other things that should lead to a solemn trip in the aisle.
Benson Boone may seem that he could be the remedy for this, as a person with aspirations to be a sly showman as well as in Rank rendist. He has a winning irreverence and will to take the piss of himself, as in his new video for the song “Mr. Electric Blue”, where he sports a “One Hit Wonder” t-shirt (this unbeatable hit being “Broken Things”, the most broadcast song of 2024) and undressing in the comic dialogue where he laughs at his own writing skills. Make fun of your porn stacus at the old school? Not only will he not shave it, but he will invite your meticulous exam more by putting a glam-rock-evoking combination, with chest hair. Do you think he is doing his signature backflip is cheesy? Very good – just for you, it will make eight in a single performance. And in his delicious coachella ensemble, he recognized how ready his voice is ready for rock operas by making “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Brian May … A promise that Boone could bring back on days when singing like a girl and a pure fanfaron could be complementary, not contradictory.
It is therefore not fun to point out that “American Heart”, his second album, is especially not very fun. There are dispersed attempts to bring part of the player and my arrogance that is part of his performance image. But above all, it seems that, as a recording artist, anyway, Boone really wants to stay in the field of plush swimmers or even Alex Warrens of the world, with equipment that is Mawkish before he is at all rock or noisy. Its chops are unassailable, and this goes more than a little towards the elevation of the terrestrial material. It has what it takes to be ready, Freddy, but for the most part here, we are talking about a bohemian Naps-Ady.
The happiest figures are better. “Mystical Magical” has already been absent for a few months, you may have already decided how much you are with “Moonbeam Ice Cream”; Personally, I am an aspiring to a ridiculous language at the service of an idiotic love song (“Prepare yourself for my polygon” and all that), so it works. The hook is a bit disgusting like an ear worm, but it’s always a sparkling step in the right direction for Boone. “Sorry, I’m here for someone else”, another advanced single does a good job to capture this worried feeling of meeting a ex darling on a mediocre date. If it was a country song, it would be played for the rope, but because it is Benson and because it is pop, it ends with Boone which goes up in the arms of his true love. (It also ends suddenly suddenly, as do several of the album songs, in an apparent rush to conclude the whole disc in 30 minutes.)
In the midst of songs not yet familiar, “I Wanna Be to You Call” is an immediate show in the first list. The lyrics, as with most records, consist of a series of gémérans. (“Oh, baby, I just need your number / if you have a phone,” he sings, and after minutes of consideration, I still can’t decide whether it’s supposed to be funny or not.) But who cares about words-right? – When you have a song ACE which is the only one on the album produced and co-written by Malay (Frank Ocean, Lorde), which brings an atmosphere worthy of a Harry Styles file to an album which presents itself otherwise as an easy to live washing.
A song that targets this kind of take-off and does not take off is “Wanted Man”, which is more or less its glam-rock number here, without succeeding in ringing rock. “You rolled like a rock queen ‘n’ roll / you brought every man living on his knees,” he begins, and early, he progressed towards “I would give up my life for your love”-it looks more like someone who has never met a hot woman in a bar imagining what it could be. (It is tempting to blame the whole song by nourishing Boogie-Rock songs from the 70s in AI, then eliminating guitars.)
But it is an aberrant value here, with an extreme seriousness being on the agenda. “The man in me” is a romantic betrayal portrait that starts the 10 notches. In fact, it can be deeply personal – “You don’t care when I fall, burns slowly / and light and crowds and cameras on my face become stronger / And I need time / You say” why? “” Seems to be the real beef of a newly mint pop star that the daughter does not understand. But the way it is raised at melodramatically operating heights does not make favors to feelings.
He is also personal with “Mimical Song” and “Young American Heart”. The old ballad brings a complete orchestration swell when Boone imagines what it will be when his parents left: “Mom, I get older / that means that you are aging / more and more? Then, in the clip, she sits next to him at the piano and seems to be barely 40 years old, so how much she should be flattered by her evocation of the creeping decrepitude is in question. But is it soft and sincere? Yes, give it, the same thing for “Young American Heart”, in which Boone recounts a car accident, he was back when he was a teenager-that is to say a few years ago-and says he would have been ok while he could go with his friend. These are the songs you write when you try to look old before your time.
Of course, these songs play less ridiculously on disk than they read on paper because Boone has the kind of phenomenal voice that can push a lot of medium material in the more fair category through power and pulmonary technique. If you can get around the fact that there are no great songs here, there is still a lot to print. It may be Boone to go from her chest voice to her head voice and that again will never age. It is a testimony to the quantity of skills and techniques that he brings here that I spent a large part of my second listening “American Heart” by reflecting on how album 3 could be better.
To start, next time could be the time to work with more external writers, but that Boone was based on his constant collaboration with Jack Lafrantz. (He said in a recent interview that he and Lafrantz wrote the album in a good day, and unfortunately, it looks like that.) You can’t help but think: and if, in addition to eliminating puffs, he worked with someone who really allowed him to be funny? No one asks her to be Sabrina Carpenter, but the real target could be the one he knows well: Freddy Mercury knew that his opera voice was leading to a certain arch, although he would certainly put him to use for a pure passion.
The real prescription for a trampoline jump forward will be up to it. We just know that, for the moment, his winning character has written a check that the mainly banal equipment cannot cash. At 22, he still has a lot of time to find a more substantial deposit.
