Ben Harper - Both Sides Of The Gun (2006)

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Disc One reveals Harper's idea of private life, and with that come tensions of a different sort. This sequence opens with "Morning Yearning," full of moody a.m. impressions both reassuring and scary; here, Harper augments his drums, percussion, piano and vibes with an elegant string quartet. Standouts in this half include "Waiting for You," which has the deliberate melodic and linguistic urgency of Big Star's Third, and the dejected "Pictures in a Frame," which anatomizes romantic trouble with some of the horrible conclusions of the Cure's "Pictures of You." The disc coheres persuasively, nine songs that gently penetrate emotional places that Harper has dealt with for years, but never with such consistent focus. On Both Sides of the Gun, things can be heartening. Things can also be bloody hell on the nerves. The rap on Ben Harper's music up to this point has been that it's been too derivative. This could be the album where he finally transcends that: "Engraved Invitation," for example, uses "Jumpin' Jack Flash" as a starting point, but it isn't a replica of the Stones; it's Harper using raunch as a starting place for his own more spiritual trip. It's the kind of liftoff from rooted points of departure he's always made. But on Both Sides of the Gun it takes you higher. The second disc unleashes the public Ben. "Better Way," a bracing rocklike tune with Harper's loquacious Weissenborn guitar and David Lindley's resonating tambura, sets the tone. Harper, hardly worrying about sustaining the even timbre of his smooth soul tenor, eventually screams lines such as "Take your face out of your hands/And clear your eyes/You have a right to your dreams/ And don't be denied." A sense of unease permeates Gun: "Living these days is making me nervous," he sings on the funk-driven title song. As a social commentator, Harper is smart enough not to overreach: The best description of his more conscious songs would be loose but pointed. On the fantastic "Engraved Invitation," Harper makes his peace with late-Sixties Rolling Stones music, if not with the dangerous challenges of the world right now. "Some days," he sings, "I'm the Lord's servant/Some days I'm Satan's pawn." But that doesn't stop Harper from doing other songs, such as "Black Rain" and "Gather 'Round the Stone," critical of the Katrina tragedy and teenage decisions about military enlistment. "I'm not a desperate man," Harper sings to white-knuckled strings and threatened dance rhythms on "Black Rain," "but these are desperate times at hand." Author : JAMES HUNTER Source : www.rollingstone.com/reviews/ album/_/id/9449332/rid/9451642/

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CD1 (30:55)
01 Morning Yearning
02 Waiting For You
03 Picture In A Frame
04 Never Leave Lonely
05 Sweet Nothing Serenade
06 Reason To Mourn
07 More Than Sorry
08 Crying Won't Help You Now
09 Happy Everafter In Your Eyes


CD2 (32:59)
01 Better Way
02 Both Sides Of The Gun
03 Engraved Invitation
04 Black Rain
05 Gather 'Round The Stone
06 Please Don't Talk About Murder
07 Get It Like You Want It
08 The Way You Found Me
09 Serve Your Soul

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