Oh, the good ole sophomore album.
For some artists, it reminds us fans why we even gave a shit about their music
in the first place, but for others, it proves that all good things must come to
an end, and that that debut album is the best we’re ever going to get. So what
category does the undeclared love of my life Ben Howard fall into? I’m going to
go with the former and say that Howard not only reminds fans of what they
already loved about him, but also leaves them wanting even more with his
sophomore follow-up I Forget Where We
Were.
Even
by just looking at the album cover, you can tell it’s going to be a different
ball game than 2011’s Every Kingdom, with
this second album’s cover featuring a shadowy picture of Howard in contrast
with Every Kingdom’s bluey-green
ocean background. But I think Howard’s biggest shift from his debut effort
falls with the music, with Howard having gone electric. Critics like to place
Howard in the “New Boring” category, especially with frequent comparisons to Ed
Sheeran and Tom Odell, but I disagree. Sure, Howard’s not doing anything that
hasn’t been done before but let’s be real for a second, even the most so-called
“original” acts like Neon Indian or Phosphorescent are just knock-offs of
someone else. I like to think that Howard belongs to what I’ve deemed the “three
name club,” a club in which its members all happen to use their full name (see
Benjamin Francis Leftwich, James Vincent McMorrow, and Gregory Alan Isakov for
reference), and love to grace our willing ears with the sounds of just their sensitive
voices and their trusty acoustic guitars. Now of course, Ben Howard is only two
names (I think Benjamin John Howard could have had a nice ring to it), but in Every Kingdom, it’s mostly Howard and
his guitar, just like the aforementioned above. However, in I Forget Where We Were, we get more
percussion, more electric guitar, more bass, more everything. If you didn’t
know any better, you might think you were hearing some early era Foals or Bloc
Party, especially with tracks like “Rivers in Your Mouth” and “Small Things,”
but Howard’s voice lends itself to make the music an expansion, rather than a
renovation of his former sound. Fret not though you Every Kingdom loyalists, because though Howard progresses from his
old sound, he does return to his acoustic picking roots with tracks like, “She
Treats Me Well” and the haunting “Conrad.” Here, Howard does what every
musician hopes to do with their second album, bringing in more of an audience,
without alienating his OG homies.
The sound isn’t the only thing that’s
matured with IFWWW, but also the
themes and the drives behind the album. While Every Kingdom graced us with a soundtrack to happily drive down the
Pacific Coast Highway with not a single worry in the world, IFWWW will have you wanting to cozy up
in your English cottage by the sea on a rainy day (I don’t actually have a
cottage by the sea in England but I can dream, right?). The album reads like a
cycle of grief, with hurt, loss, and recovery exuding through each song, and it
gives the album an almost dark feel. But yet, it’s a darkness that’s peaceful
and comforting and one that most certainly guarantees a light at the end of the
tunnel. The album really does give off a cottage-by-the-sea feel, as if a storm
is headed your way, and all you’ll have is some Earl Grey tea and a dimming
fire to keep you safe. This all makes total sense though, as Howard does
actually hail from a village by the sea and grew up surfing his entire life. Like
Howard, the entire album is closely connected with water and every song seems
to flow fluidly right into the next one, like a steady crashing of waves. The
titular track “I Forget Where We Were,” as well as the final track “End of the
Affair” bring not just this sea/ocean/storm feel home, but also all of the overarching
themes I mentioned before.
So can Ben Howard really do no
wrong? Not exactly, because as great as IFWWW
is, it lacks variety, which is a lot more important than it sounds,
especially when an album clocks in at just around 55 minutes. Every Kingdom offered us something
different with each track, whether it was in tempo or instrumentation, and we
just don’t have that with IFWWW. Sure, it’s easy to get lost in the gloom and
doom of the album, and it is one that you have to grow into rather than be
wowed at upon a first listen, but as far as sophomore albums go, Ben, you done
good kid.
