The Very Thing that Drives You Can Drive You Insane

For his tenth studio album, Ben Harper has traded his normal backing band the Innocent Criminals for a new one the Relentless7, but make no doubt, White Lies for Dark Times still sounds like a Ben Harper album. What the Relentless7 adds can be heard most on the rock songs that sound bluesier and closer to a garage band, the three musicians come from Texas, sound than the more polished Innocent Criminal sound.

That influence can be heard of the drums and fuzz first single Shimmer & Shine and the album opener Number with No Name which is a slide guitar from down on the bayou that takes a pit stop in Seattle. The spacey yet raw Up to You Now is reminiscent of something off of Mirror ball which famously saw Neil Young replaced for the album Pearl Jam with Crazy Horse. Lay There & Hate Me features an opening piano groove and bassline that borders on disco with some “ooh’s” that could have been lifted from a Rolling Stones record yet mix together perfectly. While Why Must You Always Dress in Black sounds like something from the Jimi Hendrix catalogue. Keep it Together (So I Can Fall Apart) starts out that way until it breaks down into kind of jam band type groove.

The slower songs sound more like vintage Harper for better or worse. Skin Thin sounds like it has appeared already on his previous nine albums with just a changed lyric or two. On the flip side of the coin is Fly One Time that just builds and builds with a driving groove to the point where Ben’s voice starts to crack. Hopefully the rejuvenation from the Relentless7 keeps Ben Harper putting out listenable music for another ten albums.

Song to Download – Fly One Time

White Lies for Dark Times gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.