The double album is one of the most heinous inventions in the history of mankind. It tends to be the first sign that a band has strayed into wanton egomania – when 30 tracks of sprawling, bloated half-ideas seems like a better idea than a proper, well thought-out single album.
What’s that? Ben Harper – a man more prone to horrific, lengthy East Coast college jam-bandery than most – has released a double album called Both Sides Of The Gun that contains a song called Please Don’t Talk About Murder While I’m Eating? Oh good God, no. What have we done to deserve this?
Turns out, though, that Both Sides Of The Gun is actually pretty consistently spiffy. What are the chances?
For a start, the instantly pleasing thing about Both Sides Of The
Gun by Ben Harper is that, although it’s a double album, there’s only
about an hour’s worth of material between the two CDs. It’s not called
Both Sides Of The Gun for nothing – one CD houses Ben Harper’s gentler,
acoustic side, while the other one is where he allows himself to rock
out a little. Yeah, just like the Foo Fighters did, but Both Sides Of
The Gun features 100% less Norah Jones, so already has something of a
head-start over Grohl and co.
Weirdly, for all our natural distrust of the majority of bland
acoustic singer-songwriters, the first, quieter disc is easily the
stronger of the two. The whole thing – from opener Morning Yearning to
final track Happy Everafter In Your Eyes – is shot through with the
kind of gorgeous aching Sunday morning melancholy that instantly puts
the likes of Jack Johnson in their place. In fact, had this side of the
album been released alone and given the kind of bonkers marketing push
that Johnson was given, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine Ben
Harper conquering the world with a flick of his wrist.
But that hasn’t happened, because Ben Harper has another side to his
gun, and it’s a bit pissed off. Side Two trades in the gentle intimacy
of the previous nine tracks for multi-instrumental political rage. And
it’s a decidedly more patchy affair. The Side Two Ben Harper does
nothing more than tell us things we already know (politians aren’t to
be trusted, the New Orleans flood wasn’t very well managed, murder is
quite bad), and the general preachiness makes it a listen that doesn’t
call for repeatedly listening.
On the other hand, Side Two of Both Sides Of The Gun, musically at
least, is thrillingly diverse. There’s a Superfly blaxploitation track,
a monged-out Indian sounding track, a few nods to prime-era The Rolling
Stones. The ugly head of the Dave Matthews Band influence that we
expected to be overwhelmed by only fleetingly surfaces on tracks such
as Gather ‘Round The Stone, and for that we should be truly thankful.
If it wasn’t for all the political haranguing – and the completely
unneccesary eight-minute final jam – Side Two would have been much more
palatable.
Though not without merit, Side Two of Both Sides Of The Gun by Ben
Harper is thoroughly eclipsed by the more restrained Side One – which
is worth your money alone.
[review by Stuart Heritage]
