SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BENJAMIN RUSSELL – PLEASURE CENTER

BENJAMIN RUSSELL
PLEASURE  CENTER
TCBE RECORDS

Saskatoon born, but current Montreal-based, Benjamin Russell has been very busy lately. Russell, who has been performing since the 1970s continues to show that he is a viable and interesting artist. He may have started with folk and singer, songwriter, he quickly learned to change with the times and became influenced by the music he had been hearing around him. In the 1980s he was best known for his hit “Miracle (Miracle Of Love)”. Now in 2023 – 2024, Russell has been remarkably prolific. In 2023 he released two solo albums (Frontier and Ambient Whie Noise Waves For Sleep) and collaborated with Rob Stuart for an album (Something In F Minor) and an EP (Brighter Light). That is a lot of music, and even more impressive is the fact that they are extremely great albums.

Now, in 2024, he kicks off the year with a new album, Pleasure Center, and it just might be his best album yet. The album is very diverse, with a great many sounds hitting the ear. He drifts easily from genre to genre and voice to voice. This is electro – pop/pop/rock at its finest. Russell’s voice has never sounded stronger and confident. He takes on each song with a great deal of energy and emotion, it leaves the listener a little bit breathless.

The album opens with the wonderful title track. “Learn to like and follow before you can walk,” sings Russell. “Jaded, bored and anxious/ You’re going to miss what’s next” he concludes in “The Pleasure Center”. He is not angry, and he is not wrong, just pointing out what is happening in a synthetic society. This is why the album is so full of soul. He uses technology, sure, but that is not the focus of the album. The song, the music, the lyrics are the focus of the album.

Some of the songs borrow from the 1980s sound and vibe (“Dreams Across The Sky”) and those moments are sublime. It gives Russell the opportunity to write incredible melodic songs. On the other hand, he is not afraid to be somewhat experimental, with songs like “Will The Aliens Save Us” (the answer is a clear ‘no’). He then, very easily, dips his foot into folk-rock, with the wonderful “Beautiful”. Then he almost throws away an incredible instrumental (the far too short “Monday”) that is incredibly moving.  It may seem that Russell is all over the place, but he is the constant thread and is able to bring everything together to create a cohesive album.

Russell is extremely creative and talented. Pleasure Center is an album full of surprises and worthy of repeated spins on the turntable. It is an album that has depth and many layers, most of which are missed on first listening. It is an album that rewards its listeners with so many levels of great music and lyrics. It is a great album.

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